A geothermal drilling and recovery system comprising a drilling rig having an elevator with a laser and a radar gun mounted on said elevator, a drill pipe, a rotating mirror mounted adjacent the lower end of said drill pipe and means for establishing a vacuum adjacent said lower end of said drill pipe to remove and recover heat and drilling debris therefrom.

There has been invented a method for producing geothermal energy using supercritical fluids for creation of the underground reservoir, production of the geothermal energy, and for heat transport. Underground reservoirs are created by pumping a supercritical fluid such as carbon dioxide into a formation to fracture the rock. Once the reservoir is formed, the same supercritical fluid is allowed to heat up and expand, then is pumped out of the reservoir to transfer the heat to a surface power gener...

Process of drilling a bore into a geopressured-geothermal reservoir containing a gas-laden fluid, allowing the fluid to escape through the bore, passing the fluid into a rotatable turbine which causes a generator to produce electricity, passing the fluid to means for separating gas from the fluid, and passing the fluid into a multi-effect distillation system to extract fresh water from the fluid to produce fresh water and saturated brine.

A method for the recovery of geothermal energy from subterranean formations comprising injecting a thermally stable, non-corrosive, non-aqueous fluid into said formation to absorb heat; recovering the heated fluid from the formation; and, recovering heat energy from the heated fluid.

When Geothermal water, obtained from natural sources, delivers heat to energy conversion equipment or to heat transfer surfaces, the resulting effluents are supersaturated with amorphous silica. This invention relates to passing such effluents through a fluidized particle bed in which the silica deposits on the bed particles. The coated particles are removed from the system, the coatings removed and the particles are recycled to the fluidized bed.

A geothermal expansion wellhead system is provided which adapts the wellhead and control valves to the casing in the wellbore. The system suspends and seals the casing while expanding and contracting during geothermal operations at temperatures up to 550.degree. F. and above. The system consists of an expansion spool in which there is mounted an expansion mandrel which is secured on the end of the production casing extending out of a cemented geothermal well. The expansion mandrel has a hard smo...

Residual geothermal steam containing hydrogen sulfide from a steam turbine is condensed with an aqueous solution of ferric chelate in a direct or indirect condensor whereby the hydrogen sulfide is converted to free sulfur and the ferric chelate is converted to ferrous chelate. The ferrous chelate is subsequently oxidized back to the ferric state and reused.

Residual geothermal steam containing hydrogen sulfide from a steam turbine is condensed with an aqueous solution of ferric chelate whereby the hydrogen sulfide is converted to free sulfur and the ferric chelate is converted to ferrous chelate. The ferrous chelate is subsequently oxidized back to the ferric state and reused.

A packing supporting piston assembly removably securable to an end section of a production casing of a geothermal well, which end section is disposed above a well head. The piston assembly when so mounted has packing in abutting sealing contact with the end section of the production casing and also has packing that is in slidable sealing contact with the interior surface of the expansion spool. The piston assembly is of such structure that the pressures exerted by the packing on the end section ...

Apparatus and method for handling geothermal brine containing high non-condensible gas concentrations. The brine is directed into a pre-flash chamber where a vapor fraction is separated from a liquid fraction, the vapor fraction including steam and a non-condensible gas. The vapor fraction is directed into and through a reboiler in countercurrent flow relationship to a condensate. This action causes the steam of the vapor fraction to be stripped from the non-condensible gas and also causes the c...