Jets of 7200°F Hydrogen Cut Through Granite at 100 Feet per Hour

Tired of wearing out diamond bits when you're drilling miles deep into the earth's crust? Try using a high-velocity flame jet instead

By Paul Adams Posted 06.15.2009 at 2:54 pm 7 Comments

Inspired by designs created by his father decades ago, Jared Potter is building an arsenal of ultra-powerful flame-jet drills. As seen in the NatGeo video above, one prototype directs a jet of burning hydrogen at 3200°F against a slab of solid granite. The rock doesn't melt, as one might expect under such a blast of heat; instead, the high temperature causes the rock to fracture as it expands along existing micro-cracks in the material. After a short exposure to the flame-jet drill, a gaping, perfectly smooth borehole has been created in the granite.

For deeper drilling jobs, in wet, high-pressure conditions where traditional bits jam and break, Potter has another prototype. This one burns at a toasty 7200°F, but the flame is used indirectly, to superheat a jet of water, which in turn bores through the rock and simultaneously flushes the fragments out of the borehole.

Technovelgy.com points out that the Romulans use a similar device in the recent Star Trek film. Their purpose is to destroy a planet, but Potter intends his flame-jet drills to facilitate the creation of wells for geothermal power.

Able to drill up to 100 feet in an hour, without needing its bit replaced, the flame-jet drill could indeed revolutionize the future of power, bringing geothermal into the limelight as a readily available primary source of energy, rather than a rather unwieldy and expensive alternative green option.

Just don't mix up your flame drill with your cool plasma toothbrush fumbling in the dark.

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7 Comments

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bdhoro87

06/15/09 at 8:36 pm

I'm amazed at how visually boring that video is with a headline like that.

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podboq

06/15/09 at 8:48 pm

This guy could use some serious funding... great idea, small looking research facility...

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animemaster

06/16/09 at 3:53 am

Freeken awesome. I wonder how well it dose at normal cement I know allot of people that are tired of jackhammering and hammer drilling through that stuff.

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nonsquid

06/16/09 at 4:59 am

Seems like the supply tube at depth would be the limiting component, along with material removal. Wouln't it be better to set off a long bar of magnesium and keep feeding the tip with magnesium and oxygen. It would be a well drilling thermal lance.

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oisilener1982

06/16/09 at 10:43 am

We can create a planet or star destroyer with this technology

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thunderstone_aka

03/09/10 at 2:52 pm

Hard rock spalls only if it contains quartz
I have been burning channels in hard stone (granite) for over 20 years. Diesel fuel, acetylene, propane are usual fuels required for these torches. Hydrogen just another fuel source.
All these systems require compressed oxygen which is the most costly element.

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sol urmomnude

01/12/11 at 5:57 pm

could this tech be used to make it economical to drill a subway system in salt lake city and to park city, utah?

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