Technology:

LSU Researcher Collaborates with Chevron Exploring EGS Methods (Louisiana State University)

Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), can harvest energy from hot dry rocks beneath the Earth’s surface in artificially created reservoirs. The idea is to generate a network of cracks in the rocks, then inject cold water and 
let it circulate through the cracked formation. The resulting steam can then be used to produce electricity.

Blaise Bourdin, associate professor
 in the LSU Department of Mathematics

The lack of predictive understanding and numerical simulation of the techniques employed for creating these networks of fractures is what brought Blaise Bourdin, associate professor in the LSU Department of Mathematics and an adjunct faculty at the LSU Center for Computation & Technology (CCT), to this problem.

It turns out the way cracks for geothermal systems are generated is very similar to the way reservoir engineering in the petroleum industry is done, so this research can be applied when drilling for oil and gas.

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