Rock Drilling for Energy Resources

The Department of energy estimates that 70% of the US deep sea oil and renewable geothermal resources come from rock wells deeper than 5000 ft . As a result of the ultra-deep nature of these wells, drilling costs are found to be an average of 50% of total project costs, ranging from 3 to 8 million dollars per well.

The PFTL conducts experiments and modeling in order to optimize the drilling process, through the study of tribological and multiphase flow phenomenae present at the bit-rock interface.