The field laboratory's location was selected to be Milford, Utah due to the presence of several desireable qualities. This location in Utah is home to a large volume of hot crystalline granite at a relatively shallow depth of ~8000 feet. Additionally, this location poses low environmental and seismic risk to surrouding areas. The site also has access to facilities such as water, power, offices, and broadband internet.

Multiple wells have already been drilled: a single pilot well (~7500 feet) for geological testing and two seismic monitoring wells (~1000, 3200 feet). The main injection well is projected to be drilled in the next year.

Since geothermal energy is prevalent in Utah, Chemical Engineering Outreach is committed to publicizing the basic knowledge of geothermal energy and related concepts. We have developed several teaching modules to demonstrate these concepts and continue to find new opportunities to expose geothermal energy to students. If you want us to visit your school/event to talk about geothermal energy and FORGE, click HERE!

We currently have modules demonstrating how we can use both a steam turbine, similar to one used in a geothermal powerplant, and a difference in temperature to generate electricity.

The main focus of FORGE is researching a relatively new technology in geothermal energy called Enhance Geothermal Systems (EGS). This technique involves creating a synthetic fracture network in historically undesirable locations in order to harness thermal energy from the Earth. We are currently working on teaching modules that will visualize fractures in the earth, and both conductive and convective heat transfer.