Geothermal Energy

The PUFFIN group at MIT is part of an ARPA-E OPEN funded project led by Eden, a geoscience technology development company founded by graduate students at MIT. Eden are developing a new method for stimulating fractures in deep geothermal reservoirs, to replace the hydraulic fracturing techniques developed by the oil and gas industry, which are ineffective at the depths and temperatures needed for geothermal power.

As experts in pulsed-power technology, our group is developing a lab-scale pulser to carry out experiments in conjunction with Prof. Einstein’s group in the CEE department at MIT, and we are also involved in the design work for a field-scale pulser which will be used at a variety of test sites worldwide to test the new electro-hydraulic fracturing approach pioneered by Eden.

You can read more about the project in this press release from Eden and in in this short news article at the PSFC.