DRAGON WATER
By Anton Antonio
November 17, 2015
Two days ago, I posted an infomercial on Facebook about “dragon
water” with the caption: “Iceland is Attempting to Harness “Dragon Water” for
Renewable Energy.” Most of us are
familiar with the term “water dragon” which is a zodiac sign in Chinese
astrology associated and known to be lucky, flexible, eccentric, imaginative,
artistic and charismatic… but not the term “dragon water”. One particular friend, Betchay Angeles Gomez,
became curious enough to comment that she needs to read and research on this
term. As a response to Betchay’s
comment, here is a researched material about “dragon water” written by Paul Brown,
the founding editor of Climate News Network and is also the environment
correspondence of The Guardian newspaper.
Please read…
“DRAGON WATER COULD POWER THE PLANET
By Paul Brown
November 5, 2015
The quest is on to develop new technology that can tap the
intense heat deep below the Earth’s surface and supply the whole world with
electricity. An ambitious project is
being launched to drill deep into the Earth’s crust to harness super-heated
“dragon water” that would generate massive quantities of renewable energy. Unlike traditional geo-thermal heat, which
exploits hot rocks to produce steam for turbines, this project goes far deeper
--- to where the pressure and temperature are huge but potential benefits are
10 times as great. There is an infinite amount
of energy beneath the Earth’s crust. The
problem is the technology to harness it.
The European Union (EU) believes that deep drilling techniques developed
by the oil industry can be adapted to extract the energy. It has earmarked €15.6 million for a project
in which potentially the world’s most energy-rich geothermal well will be
drilled at Larderello in Tuscany, Italy.
The technical challenges are formidable because of the intense heat and
pressure that will turn steel brittle and wreck electrical equipment, so the
plan is to develop engineering tools that can withstand the conditions.
Iceland, which already exploits traditional geo-thermal energy successfully,
has tried and failed to harness super-heated rock. But it has not given up, and a second attempt
is being planned. The EU believes using
oil company expertise in drilling deep wells will be the key to success. At a depth of between two to three
kilometers, the conditions change dramatically and drillers will encounter what
has been called “dragon water”. No one
has previously manages to control the forces unleashed in a well under such
extreme high temperature and pressure conditions. Roar Nybo, a physicist at SINTEF Petroleum
Research, explains: “One of the major uncertainties is the presence of what we
call supercritical fluids. At depths of
two to three kilometers in the Earth’s interior, ambient physical conditions
change dramatically. Something very special
happens when temperatures reach 374 degrees and the pressure 218 times the air
pressure at the surface. We encounter
what we call supercritical water. It’s
isn’t liquid, and nor is it steam. It
occurs in a physical form incorporating both phases, and this means that it
takes on entirely new properties.
Supercritical water behaves like a powerful acid, and will attack
anything --- including electronics and drilling equipment. In a TV fantasy series, it would probably be
called ‘dragon water’.” But the dragon
water has major advantages too, Nybo says.
The fluid can transport from the depth up to 10 times more energy than
normal water and steam can achieve in a standard geothermal well. It also flows more easily through rock
fractures and pores. If researchers can
succeed in controlling the forces involved, without the technology breaking
down, then a new and vast source of energy can be tapped anywhere in the
world. Another potential advantage is
that supercritical water can also transport valuable minerals to the surface in
solution. This could provide potential
incidental revenues. “The dragon of the
deep may thus help us open a real treasure trove,” Nybo says. The depths to which engineers have to drill
to achieve the desired temperatures will vary from country to country, due to
variations in the thickness of the Earth’s crust and the geothermal
gradient. In Norway, temperature
increases by about 20 degrees per kilometer, while in other parts of the world,
this may be as high as 40 degrees per kilometer. The average is about 25 degrees. Geothermal energy is being developed across
the world and has huge potential in every continent. Countries currently leading the way in the
generation of electricity from geothermal sources are the US, the Philippines,
Mexico, Indonesia and Italy.”
I certainly hope this (dragon water) new form of renewable
energy becomes a reality. If there are
no serious environmental issues attached to it, why not? We really are in need to identify and harness
ecologically friendly sources of energy as an alternative to fossil fuel which
is primarily being blamed for global warming and climate change.
Having worked for an oil and gas exploration managing
company (Conley & Associates, Inc.) in the late 1980s, I should say that
extracting and utilizing “dragon water” will prove to be a very daunting
task. I have serious reservations,
however, on the two to three kilometer depth that the report identifies where
“supercritical water” can be found. Our
company, using Rig No. 10 of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC), dug
the deepest hole in Southeast Asia at 18,369 feet which is roughly 5.6
kilometers… almost double the 2 to 3-kilometer mark as suggested. Unfortunately, we did not find gas or oil of
commercial quantity… neither did we find dragon water.
Thoughts to
promote positive action…
(Please
visit, like and share Pro-EARTH Crusaders on Facebook or follow me at http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/
and http://twitter.com/EarthCrusader/)
REFERENCE:
ClimateNewsNetwork.net, (2015). “Dragon Water Could Power
the Planet”. Retrieved on November 17,
2015 from http://climatenewsnetwork.net/dragon-water-could-power-the-planet/
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