Finalists announced for 2024 Ruggero Bertani Geothermal Innovation Award

Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award 2024 (source: EGEC)

The European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) has announced the five finalists for the 2024 Ruggero Bertani Geothermal Innovation Award. The winner will be announced at the GeoTHERM expo & congress, taking place in Offenburg, Germany from 29 February to 1 March, 2024.

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The finalists are:

Canopus Drilling Solutions Geothermal BV (Netherlands), with the project Field pilot of the Directional Steel Shot Drilling technology at VersuchsStollen Hagerbach, CH.

The novel hybrid directional steel shot drilling (DSSD) technology developed by Canopus drills up to three times faster than pure PDC drilling while steering through any rock type and at any depth. The project was done as part of the Deploy the Heat project www.deploitheheat.eu (Joint Call Geothermica SES 2021).

Deutsche Erdwärme GmbH (Germany), with the project Geothermal Well GN-Th-1 (Geothermal Project Graben-Neudorf).

The geothermal project of Deutsche Erdwärme GmbH in Graben-Neudorf, in SW-Germany (Baden Württemberg) has demonstrated for the first time in the Upper Rhine Graben the innovative application of silicate drilling fluid systems in combination with an offshore mud cooler technology to successfully cope with very hot subsurface temperatures in challenging reactive geological formations enabling the successful exploration of fractured reservoirs in a temperature environment of up to 205°C.

Halliburton (Netherlands), with the project GeoESP Intake: Geothermal Electric Submersible Pumps (ESP) Intake.

The GeoESP Intake leverages technologies from the oil and gas and medical industries to reduce power consumption in some cases by over 30% for Geothermal Electric Submersible Pumps (ESP) in high-flow geothermal applications (> 92 lt/s). The GeoESP Intake design for a variety of applications has remained practically unchanged for decades till 2023

HydroVolve UK Ltd (United Kingdom), with the project The GeoVolve HYPERDRIVE

For the past ten years, HydroVolve has been researching and developing a downhole engine capable of operating continuously and reliably in the harshest of downhole environments. This has resulted in the development of the GeoVolve HYPERDRIVE, a high-performance, high-integrity percussive drilling system.

Vulcan Energie Ressourcen GmbH (Germany), with the project Lithium Extraction Optimization Plant (LEOP) to produce green lithium in Europe.

The Upper Rhine Graben deep reservoirs contain lithium. The brine produced is cooled to use the energy for the extraction process and to supply energy to customers. The cooled brine is filtered through an adsorption process, a physical method of Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE).

Source: EGEC