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Report on recently held European Geothermal PhD Days in Zurich, Switzerland

Report on recently held European Geothermal PhD Days in Zurich, Switzerland Presentation at the 2018 European PhD Days in Zurich/ Switzerland (source: IGA)
Alexander Richter 19 Mar 2018

The 9th edition of the European Geothermal PhD Days was successfull held at ETH in Zurich/ Switzerland bringing together 80 students from all over Europe and beyond.

Every year, geothermal PhD Students from all over Europe meet at their own event to share details about their research on geothermal topics.

This year the ETH University in Zurich/ Switzerland hosted the 9th edition of the event. With about 80 participants the conference attracted a stable number of researchers from countries all over Europe and beyond.

A great overview of the event has been provided by Martin Bloemedal by TU Delft, for further details see link below.

Presentations and posters covered a wide range of topics regarding geothermal energy. From the high enthalpy systems for power production all the way to the ground source heat pumps and from technical work on simulation and field studies up to governance and management studies.

Some general views on key developments that were presented:

  • New drilling methods. Man kind has always used rotary drilling methods. Whith the trend towards more and deeper boreholes in more solid rocks, the demand for contactless drilling increases. Promising developments were shown on sonic, laser and waterjet methods.
  • New concepts combining CO2 storage in geothermal reservoirs and recovery for power production
  • New (composite) materials and monitoring methods to ensure well integrity.

For further details see link below.

Source: Martin Bloemedal