The geothermal energy trapped a couple of miles under the earth is one untapped source of energy that can turn most of our energy woes into happiness. But the extremely high costs of drilling play the spoilsport. Keeping this limitation in mind Mark Russell, CEO of Hypersciences has presented the idea of an ‘earth gun’ which he claims will be ten times faster than the traditional drilling methods. He got this projectile- based system of his, patented last year and has also received a funding of about one million dollar by Shell’s Game Changer program to continue his research.

In Russell’s process of drilling deep holes in the earth’s crust, a projectile with a special abrasive core is loaded into a ram accelerator (which serves as chamber as well as the barrel of this earth gun). Gases are then pumped into the ram accelerator which then ignite and create high pressure while the projectile is passing through. This high pressure shoots the projectile at a speed of 2km/s or 4500 miles per hour. At this super high speed, the projectile damages and obliterates any obstruction. Multiple shots are fired to attain the desired depth. For a greater width multiple ram accelerators can be used for firing the projectile. According to Russell, this new technique will save time and also money spent on tool wear and breakage.

However questions linger in the air about how this technology would work in actual practice and if there will be any adverse effect on the groundwater, geology and sub-terrainian environment because of the repeated concussive blasts.

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Author:Technology Blog