[ERL FISH] – Paul Woskoff (MIT)

“Accessing Geothermal Energy with Millimeter-Wave Beams”

Abstract: Earth has a huge heat content equal to 20 billon years of current global energy consumption. This energy could be accessed almost anywhere for efficient electricity generation by penetrating deep into the crust >16 km and establishing a high temperature gradient >50 Co/m for high-power, supercritical extraction at temperatures >373 Co.  Millimeter-wave (30 – 300 GHz) gyrotron sources, more powerful, efficient, and penetrating than infrared lasers, developed for fusion energy research have successfully ablated (>2,000 Co) laboratory holes in granite and basalt more easily than a mechanical drill.  The physics, economics, and technology are favorable for bringing the virtually limitless, clean energy of Earth to the surface.   About the speaker: Dr. Paul Woskov is a research engineer at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center with degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering. He has worked on major fusion energy experiments and spin off technologies to nuclear waste remediation, environmental monitoring, and geothermal energy.  Dr. Woskov is a member of APS, ANS, AAAS, life member of IEEE, and has won 6 R&D 100 Awards.

[FISH] Friday Informal Seminar Hour – Earth Resources Laboratory 

Postdoc-run seminar series within the Earth Resources Laboratory (ERL). Features talks by ERL members as well as special guests from academia and the energy industry on topics including geothermal energy, carbon sequestration, machine learning for geophysics, multiphase flow, subsurface imaging, and uncertainty quantification.  

Contact: fish_seminar_organizers@mit.edu