Bochum demo site begins drilling and testing operations

After several months of technical and legal preparations, F-IEG started fieldwork in September 2024 to test and further develop MTES technology beneath the Ruhr University’s (RUB) technical center.

Figure 1: Location of the first MTES borehole P1 at the University’s technical centre behind the cooling towers © Fraunhofer IEG

Bochum, located in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany, is one of six sites where the PUSH-IT project is advancing and demonstrating heat storage in geothermal reservoirs. In this case, the project repurposes abandoned hard coal mines into a Mine Thermal Energy Storage (MTES) system.

The MTES technology is being installed at the technical center of RUB, directly beneath the university’s premises, with plans to drill to a depth of 120 meters through four boreholes. The aim is to integrate this technology into the university’s heating and cooling network.

The first two boreholes are located behind the University’s cooling towers, where a huge potential of surplus heat is available, which could be stored in the subsurface. 

The drilling and completion work for the MTES wells is being carried out using F-IEG’s own 30-ton rig, the Hütte HBR 207 GT. All boreholes are being drilled to a diameter of 324 mm, reaching a depth of approximately 120 meters below ground.

 

Figure 2: View on the erected Bochum drilling site. The pipes (each 4 m long) are step by step brought down into the subsurface using a pipe handling excavator © Fraunhofer IEG

During drilling, borehole cuttings are collected and analysed at one-meter intervals using a mud separator. Geophysical wireline logging and imaging tools are also being employed to generate 1D and 2D profiles of the carboniferous rock formation beneath the demo site.

Once drilling and completion of the first two boreholes (P1 and P2) are finalised, initial pumping tests will be conducted to assess the hydraulic potential of the PUSH-IT boreholes.

PUSH-IT is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101096566.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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