FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 17, 2004
Rial Receives National Grant to Create Software
Aiding Geothermal Energy Development
CHAPEL HILL, NC -- Dr. José A. Rial, professor of geophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's College of Arts and Sciences, recently received a three-year, $622,000 grant to create software benefiting engineered geothermal systems development.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Geothermal Technologies Program funds the Enhanced Geothermal Systems Research and Development Grants.
"We will develop software that will be applicable to the whole geothermal industry," said Rial. "In combination with the right hardware, it will make possible real-time monitoring of geothermal field operations, something akin to monitoring the vital signs of an athlete during a race."
Geothermal energy derives from the Earth's heat; access to the energy source is through drilling steam or water wells in a process similar to drilling for oil. Geothermal resources can be found in tectonically active areas, where groundwater is heated by hot rocks warmed by the proximity of hot molten rock (or magma) found deep within the Earth.
Developing ways of harnessing geothermal energy, a clean and renewable energy source, is critically important as cheap oil is becoming more difficult to find and pollution from the use of fossil fuels is increasing, Rial said.
The Geothermal Technologies Program seeks to establish geothermal energy as an economically competitive contributor to the U.S. energy supply. Geothermal already is a significant energy source in California, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah and other areas of the western United States.
Rial and his research group at UNC's Wave Propagation Laboratory will develop software providing real-time images helping geothermal reservoir exploration and development, he said. The technology is based on applying seismic - natural or man-made earthquake - waves to detect fractures in the surrounding rock that control the flow of fluids in geothermal fields.
The UNC grant is one of 12 Enhanced Geothermal Systems Research and Development Grants made recently, and one of three made to universities in the eastern United States. Pennsylvania State University and Duke University also received grants, the latter being a collaborative effort with Rial's group to explore geothermal resources in Iceland.
"Our first attempt to develop this software is currently under way in Krafla, in northeastern Iceland," said Rial. "The local geothermal industry (Landsvirkjun) has also provided us with financial and logistic support."
Note: More information on geothermal energy and the Geothermal Technologies Program is available at http://www.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/overview.html. Rial is available for interviews at (919) 966-4553 or jose_rial@unc.edu.
Carolina Environmental Program contact: Tony Reevy, (919) 966-9927 or tony_reevy@unc.edu
UNC College of Arts and Sciences contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339 or deereid@unc.edu
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