Supercritical Drilling Materials Analysis: Report on Resources, Challenges, and Needed Technologies

This report describes a comprehensive review of 49 existing supercritical geothermal wells to inform future geothermal drilling attempts and avoid previous failure points and understand material and testing limitations, while collating information gathered in a publicly accessible database to inform future supercritical drilling. R&D needs and gaps were identified and a roadmap for DOE addressing the current limitations for supercritical well materials was outlined. The project's scope is centered on how accessing supercritical geothermal systems requires a comprehensive understanding of the state-of-the-art in supercritical drilling and well construction and identification of the material needs for developing stable wells. Also included here is a link to the public drilling materials dataset that this project generated and the report describes, also on the GDR.