Researchers in Geothermal Resource Exploration and Development (GRED) are multi-disciplinary, combining the knowledge of Earth and Environmental Science (EES) with that of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics (MEM), Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), and the expertise of the Energy Research Center (ERC) at Lehigh University.
This group seeks efficiencies and improvements in energy technologies via the combination of geology and geomorphology. In particular, this research thrust brings low-enthalpy geothermal resource exploration (EES), with geothermal energy utilization, power cycles, and heat and fluid flow theory, together with the field of geothermal energy research, with a focus on Enhanced Geothermal Systems (also known as EGS), and carbon sequestration and energy storage (ERC).
The partnership between EES, CEE, MEM, and the ERC has its roots in a project completed by the ERC team in Mexico that was focused on mining geothermal energy with sCO2. The collaboration has grown and expanded to the Appalachian basin where the team is now the academic co-PI on a new, three-year Department of Energy (DOE)-funded project to demonstrate 1 Mw electric production from an enhanced, underperforming natural gas well in western Pennsylvania.
Research areas include:
- Reservoir characterization, fracture networks, and induced seismicity
- Electric generation from low-enthalpy geothermal systems
- Geothermal energy storage and critical resource extraction from geothermal fluids
- geothermal-based carbon capture and storage
