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AltaRock Energy EGS patent application cleared for further review

AltaRock Energy EGS patent application cleared for further review Susan Petty and AltaRock team members on site at Newberry, September 2012 (source: AltaRock)
Alexander Richter 10 Apr 2013

AltaRock Energy patent application filed in September 2012 has been cleared for further review. The patent application applies to enhanced geothermal systems and reservoir optimization through stimulation.

Already announced in March this year, the patent application by AltaRock Energy has been cleared for further review.

The original patent application by Susan Petty and Danile L. Bour was filed on September 4, 2012 under the patent’s assignee number 603410 (AltaRock Energy, Inc.).

The patent applies to Enhanced geothermal systems and reservoir optimization. “Systems and methods for maximizing energy recovery from a subterranean formation are herein disclosed. According to one embodiment, a selected subterranean open-hole interval is isolated and at least one fracture is stimulated in the isolated subterranean open-hole interval.”

“The creation of an Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) reservoir involves fracturing a subterranean formation or a plurality of subterranean formations. Water is circulated from an injection well, through the fractures where it is heated.

The hot water or heat from the formation is produced from one or more production wells some distance away from the injection well and Water pressure opens a network of fractures in the open-hole section of the subterranean formation having the lowest fracture initiation pressure. The fracture network propagates away from the wellbore in a specific orientation that is related to existing stresses in the subterranean formation.

However, a relatively small section of the open-hole section of the subterranean formation is actually fractured. Other locations in the open-hole section having higher fracture initiation pressures that are typically deeper in the subterranean formation remain unstimulated. Unstimulated regions within the subterranean formation are an untapped source of energy for power generation and the efficiency of power generation on a per well basis remains relatively low. The cost of drilling and completing wells can range from half to 80 percent of the total cost of an EGS project.

Therefore, reducing the number of wells for a given project can have a significant impact on the overall cost of the project and ultimately the cost of power production.”

Actual Patent Application (filed September 4, 2012)