Science & Technology: Earth Battery Uses CO2 Pressurized Geothermal Process

Meet The Carbon Dioxide Battery (Forbes)

Carbon dioxide goes in. Heat comes out.

That is the basic idea behind the Earth Battery, a novel, grid-scale energy storage concept from GRC member Thomas Buscheck and a team of researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Carbon dioxide captured from factories or power plants would be pressurized until it enters a ‘supercritical’ state (something between a liquid and a gas.). It would then get injected into underground wells to a depth of 3,000 to 5,000 feet. The additional pressure caused by CO2 would force hot subterranean brines to the surface: The 120 to 200 degree Celsius fluid could then be retrieved on command for process heat, to balance renewables or run turbines.

One of the advantages of the Earth Battery is that it can leverage established equipment and know-how from the geothermal industry. The sedimentary formations required for the system are also fairly common: no cavernous salt domes or other complex geological features required.  Power plants are far more numerous than oil drilling operations. A single Earth Battery could be linked with multiple solar or wind farms to balance intermittent renewables or supplement the operation of a nuclear or gas plant. Read More........

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