The selected projects will focus on researching and developing reliable zonal isolation tools and technologies that present low risk to wellbore integrity or the conductivity of fractures; operate at high temperatures in corrosive, hard rock environments for extended periods of time; and withstand large pressure differentials.
The selected projects include:
- C-Crete Technologies, LLC (Stafford, TX): Developing graphene nanoribbons embedded in high performance polymers that can be cured and isolate zones downhole through targeted high-energy microwaves.
- Fervo Energy Company (San Francisco, CA): A collaborative effort with Schlumberger to upgrade their most popular zonal isolation technology (“Copperhead”) with high-temperature components (elastomers) to enable deployment in geothermal environments.
- Hotrock Research Organization (HERO) (Seattle, WA): Developing a high temperature packer system based on thermally-degradable expanding materials for zonal isolation, including expandable elastomers and foams to temporarily isolate zones downhole.
- Welltec, Inc. (Katy, TX): Designing an all metal, elastomers-free zonal isolation tool to enable use in higher-temperature, EGS environments.