Molten Salts as heat transfer fluid
Why Use Molten Salts?
❖ Physical and thermal properties including high Specific Heat Capacity, high Thermal Conductivity, low Vapor Pressure, working temperatures ranging form 65ºC to over 1000ºC (depending on the salt blend)
❖ Long service life - typically over 30 years
❖ Minimal risk to the environment
❖ Their use has been proven to be effective and reliable in Nuclear Power, Concentrated Solar Power and other high-temperature applications.
❖ Molten Salts are suited to using at temperatures far beyond the limits of super-critical steam
Although our solutions focus on using Molten Salts, other thermal fluids can also be used and are included in our patents.
Molten Salt Closed-Loop Extraction
By using molten salt as the heat transfer fluid in a closed loop, thermal energy from extremely high-temperature sources can be continuously extracted without exchanging fluids with the geothermal brine (and associated environmental risks). No foreign fluids are injected into the resource to make the process work. The thermal resource doesn't even need to be a fluid. Hot rock and molten rock are just a suitable.
Storage and Distribution
By using molten salt storage and heat exchangers set up in a loop, thermal energy can be captured and stored without exchanging fluids with the geothermal brine.
This system, by itself, could be used as a resource for dispatchable thermal energy.
Excess energy can be stored to meet unexpected peak demands by using our patented Molten Salt storage solutions– thus avoiding the need to build peaker plants.
Our competitors for transportation solutions are limited truck transport of fluids no hotter than 127ºC. The AGP solution can handle temperatures exceeding 300ºC transport options are scalable and include truck, ship, and pipeline
Environmental Solutions
Geothermal Pyrolysis
❖ Pyrolysis of algae to make Bio-Crude
❖ Carbon sequestering
❖ Pyrolysis of waste to make Syngas and Bio-Crude
Drilling
Solutions
Hydrothermal Spallation Drilling
Hydrothermal Spallation can be used to improve drilling efficiency in certain types of hard rock encountered when drill wells that are deep enough to access high-temperature geothermal resources.
Standard drilling methods have limitations such as rapid tool wear and associated downtime necessary for tool bit replacement/ maintenance have made non-contact drilling methods attractive.
Hydrothermal Spallation drilling is a non-contact drilling method that involves the application of thermal energy to penetrate rock formations in a way that can drive down the costs of the kind deep- well drilling needed to access the highest-temperature geothermal resources.