Exploratory geothermal drilling to be done for paper drying project
Mobile drilling rig from Fraunhofer IEG in the Steltenberg quarry of the Hohenlimburger Kalkwerke (source: Fraunhofer)
Carlo Cariaga
23 Mar 2022
An exploratory well will be drilled at Hohenlimburg in Germany to determine the productivity of a geothermal resource for the paper drying process at the Kabel paper mill site.
An exploratory borehole will be drilled over the next few weeks in the Steltenberg quarry in Hohenlimburg in Germany. This project seeks to explore the potential of using geothermal heat for the paper drying process at the Kabel paper mill site. The “Geothermal Paper Drying” research project is being done by a partnership between Kabel Premium Pulp & Paper GmbH, Fraunhofer UMSICHT, and Fraunhofer IEG.
We first reported on this EU-funded project in 2020. The then-titled “Kabel ZERO” project aimed to help the Kabel paper company to realign itself for the future and expand the use of renewable energies in the manufacturing process.
The exploratory well will be drilled to a depth of around 350 meters and will have a diameter of around 184 millimeters. Rock samples will be collected from the subsurface limestone layer that runs diagonally below the Ruhr area. Drilling will be done by the rig of Fraunhofer IEG from the sixth floor of the Steltenberg quarry of the Hohelimburger Kalkwerke and is expected to take around a month.
From the samples collected, the project team hopes to better determine the suitability of the mass limestone in Hagen as host rock for the geothermal resource at 4000 meters. These rock strata fall at an angle of at least 35 degrees, and thus can be found at different depths.
Geophysical methods will also be conducted at the borehole to record various mechanical and physical parameters at depth. There will be various pumping and conveying tests to determine the hydraulic permeability of the subsoil.
The project team hopes that the extensive in-situ investigations will help them determine how productive the geothermal reservoir is at depth. This information will then be useful for the scientists at Fraunhofer UMSICHT in developing the technology that will integrate geothermal energy into the paper drying process.
Source: Fraunhofer IEG
