Fractured Earth Lab

The geothermal industry is entering a decade defined by rapid innovation in drilling, high-temperature tools, engineered reservoirs, advanced sensing, and AI-enabled subsurface modeling. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) offers a unique combination of scientific, engineering, and computational capabilities that help companies de-risk new technologies, validate performance, and accelerate commercial deployment.

LANL collaborates with geothermal developers, drilling and service companies, equipment manufacturers, sensing and data-analytics firms, and critical-mineral innovators to generate trusted results and solve the sector’s most pressing scientific and engineering challenges.

Advantages

LANL’s capabilities directly align with the geothermal industry’s highest priorities:

• Lowering drilling and well construction costs
• Enhancing high-temperature tool reliability
• Improving subsurface predictability and reservoir performance
• Demonstrating EGS, closed-loop, and superhot geothermal concepts
• Supporting discovery, characterization, and extraction of critical minerals from geothermal fluids
• Deploying advanced sensing and AI to reduce operational risk
• Supporting U.S. industrial competitiveness and domestic energy reliability

Current projects include: DOE-OS-BES (Emergent Flow Phenomena from Fracture Coalescence, Branching and Network Geometry; Geo-processes in Mineral Carbon Storage); DOE-EERE (FORGE; improved drilling technology and cementing formulations); DOE-FECM (CCS) (e.g., caprock integrity, well integrity, NRAP, Undocumented Orphan Wells); and hydraulic fracturing, well sealants, assessment and mitigation of well leakage.

Technology Description

• High PT (140 MPa, 500oC) triaxial coreflood system designed for coupled analysis of fracture, flow and geochemical reactions
• Wellbore cement characterization (300oC, 70 MPa), including mechanics, hydraulics, rheology, calorimetry, and bonding strength
• Optical fiber measurement (FBG and OFDR) for strain and temperature sensing
• Integrated X-ray tomography/radiography and triaxial coreflood system (35 MPa, 100oC) for coupled analysis and imaging of fracture, flow and reaction
• Microfluidics lab (10 MPa, 70oC) for 2D characterization and visualization of multiphase flow and reaction in synthetic materials and minerals, rock and geomaterials
• GeoDT – Geothermal design tool for modeling stimulation, fracture growth, fluid flow, heat transfer and economics
• Integrated with modeling teams applying dfnWorks (discrete fracture network), HOSS (finite/discrete element), PFLOTRAN (continuum flow and reaction), OLGA (wellbore and pipeline transient multiphase flow) and Amanzi (coupled flow, mechanics and reaction) softwares

Market Applications

• Geothermal energy: improved design and understanding of fracture propagation, permeability and reaction
• Fracture caging: Fracture containment to prevent seismicity and enhance production
• Fracture branching: Optimization of stimulation to fully penetrate rock mass
• Well integrity: Well failures prediction, cement stress state and THMC coupled properties measurements, thermoporoelastic/thermoplastic analysis, well leakage assessment
• Fracture permeability and subsurface transport
• Carbon storage, hydrogen storage, subsurface containment

The benefits of becoming a partner with LANL

• Validate and Improve Emerging Technologies:
  Test and refine drilling systems, downhole tools, high-temperature electronics, stimulation approaches, and novel sensing platforms.
• Reduce Subsurface Uncertainty:
  Apply advanced geophysics, reservoir engineering, and AI-assisted imaging to characterize fractures, assess reservoir behavior, and inform optimal well design.
• Accelerate Commercialization with High-Quality Data:
  Generate independent, defensible data sets that strengthen investor confidence, support bankability, and inform regulatory or project-development decisions.
• Leverage HPC and Digital Innovation:
  Generate independent, defensible data sets that strengthen investor confidence, support bankability, and inform regulatory or project-development decisions.