| Quaise, Inc | |
| Foundation: | 2018 |
| Founder: | Carlos Araque, Matt Houde, Aaron Mandell |
| Location City: | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Location Country: | United States |
| Key People: | Carlos Araque Chief Executive Officer |
| Industry: | Geothermal Power |
| Products: | Millimeter-wave drilling |
| Num Employees: | 20+ |
Quaise, Inc was founded in 2018 to develop a millimeter-wave drilling system for converting existing power stations to use superdeep geothermal energy.[1] The system would repurpose existing gyrotron technology to drill 20 kilometers beneath the surface, where temperatures exceed 400°C. No fracking would be required, avoiding the potential for earthquakes that have occurred in other geothermal systems.[2] [3] Drilling using this technique is hoped to be fast, with boreholes aimed to be completed in 100 days[4] using existing 1MW gyrotrons.
Existing geothermal power stations can only be deployed in rare locations where adequate heat is located within 3km of the surface.[5] These resources are of a comparatively low temperature, and require seismically risky stimulation techniques. Further, drilling at these depths is expensive and slow.
Instead, Quaise plans to drill quickly to deep depths using a gyrotron and waveguide, vaporizing the rock by heating it.[6] Temperatures at 20km depth are above the supercritical point of water, which allows ten times more energy to be transferred given the same volumetric flow.[7] The supercritical water is then used in a supercritical steam generator which may previously have been powered with fossil fuels.
The approach proposes advantages compared with other power sources:
In October 2021, Quaise began initial testing of gyrotron boring at Oak Ridge National Laboratory[9] and plans to have a full-scale gyrotron drilling rig completed by 2024.[10] By 2026, the company hopes to have achieved 100MW of geothermal power output.[11] By 2028, Quaise aims to have converted an existing fossil-fueled power plant to run on geothermal steam.