Interview – Seequent and serving to the geothermal sector to “go digital”

Interview with Seequent CEO Graham Grant throughout the 2023 Bentley Going Digital Awards (modified from: Bentley Programs / flickr, Inventive Commons)

In October 2023, infrastructure engineering software program firm Bentley Programs held the 2023 Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure in Singapore. The occasion acknowledges the distinctive work of Bentley software program customers advancing infrastructure design, building, and operations all through the world.

Because the Bentley Subsurface Firm, Seequent was featured prominently in lots of the finalist tasks. Though there was no geothermal illustration on the listing of finalists, there have been loads of applied sciences featured throughout the occasion that may have helpful purposes for the geothermal sector.

To speak in regards to the potential of those purposes, we did an interview with Seequent CEO Graham Grant to listen to his ideas on how “going digital” can profit the geothermal trade. Graham leads Seequent’s efforts to evolve the way in which organizations work by higher subsurface understanding, discovering expertise options to buyer challenges that ship extra optimistic outcomes for a greater world.

I want to begin with a serious announcement from the occasion, which was the acquisition of Circulation State Options. How does the software program of Circulation State Options complement the present suite of instruments of Seequent?

If we’re in regards to the geology, these guys are in regards to the reservoir and  the dynamic nature of the physics of the reservoir. Each certainly one of our geothermal clients will use a reservoir  simulator of some kind. And so, we had already begun constructing an interface to Circulation State, so we will have actually good interoperability between the geology and physics of the reservoir.

You’ll properly know that the system behind a geothermal enterprise is a dynamic system. It’s steady and it’s evolving and it must be managed. It begins with a base information of the bottom, however then finally, it’s about how the offtake works and the way the how the steam crops is working and whether or not it’s financial.

Bringing this stuff collectively into an built-in suite in a manner that may assist an operator contemplate all the operation is a fairly thrilling concept, significantly as Circulation State Options runs up into the floor community and to the purpose of technology.

What influence does this acquisition make to your current customers?

Instantly, we will begin a dialog in regards to the operation. In spite of everything, the result we’re on the lookout for is to supply cost-effective baseload electrical energy for the community of the nation the operators are in. And so it modifications the dialog – it’s now in regards to the consequence, which is electrical energy.

To carry that form of experience collectively in a single room – the physics of the reservoir, the understanding of the community – and having the ability to mannequin that and assist customers consider how they will make that individual geothermal operation as optimum and economical as potential – that’s is such an thrilling concept.

We speak rather a lot about geothermal energy technology however currently there was a shift in focus to using shallow geothermal sources for heating and different purposes. How can Seequent assist with these kinds of tasks?

Circulation State Options is a comparatively newer and smaller firm, and they also have been actually centered on the high-temperature geothermal area. Now, along with Seequent, we have now the chance to discover how that expertise can eb utilized to lower-temperature, heat-based geothermal tasks.

We additionally now have the chance to discover current legacy expertise that Bentley has within the floor warmth area. Bentley is a participant in district heating, which isn’t largely recognized. That’s fairly thrilling for us now to have the potential of working with that software program, and the alternatives that that creates.

Are you trying ahead, maybe, to an integration of Leapfrog with the opposite software program instruments that Bentley has?

Probably, as a result of now Circulation State has created a bridge between us and different attention-grabbing applied sciences of Bentley.

I want to return a number of months to when Leapfrog Geothermal was rebranded to Leapfrog Vitality. What does this rebranding say in regards to the shift in focus of Seequent and your altering function within the vitality transition?

We acknowledge that the time period “vitality” was a extra accessible model in comparison with “geothermal,” which isn’t well-understood by many individuals. It tends to be understood by these contained in the trade and the geothermal trade may be very specialist and it’s fairly small.  As a positioning level, it was vital for us to make extra apparent what we’re about and what we’re doing.

However Leapfrog Vitality can be not the identical as what Leapfrog Geothermal was. We have now integrated some further capabilities into the product that weren’t there earlier than, thus increasing the product suite and providing a extra superior and succesful answer.

Would you say that Leapfrog Vitality is now extra outfitted for different purposes of geothermal sources, similar to carbon seize or lithium extraction?

We have now been concerned with some tasks in lithium extraction, and have been within the early phases of investigating a few totally different carbon seize tasks. We stay up for it, as a result of these are all elements of the overall vitality panorama. The suggestions we’re getting is actually sturdy, that what we have now is a really highly effective set of common capabilities that may be utilized into these these conditions.

These are two nice examples of why shifting away from the phrase “geothermal” to “vitality” opens up the sector to different areas that we would wish to function in like carbon seize, brines, and low-temperature purposes.

By way of “going digital,” the geothermal trade tends to concentrate on subsurface modeling and information visualization. What do you suppose are additional alternatives for geothermal tasks to “go digital” and what can presumably be the advantages of doing so?

The above-ground infrastructure that makes a geothermal system work, which is the conversion of steam to energy, appears to me an apparent place to focus the thought of a digital twin that gives real-time suggestions loops on how a facility is working. Is it environment friendly? Are there points that require predictive upkeep work? All of the ideas we have now talked about in a common sense are instantly relevant to geothermal.

Over time, what I’d prefer to see is the adoption of the type of approaches Bentley has been speaking about within the above-ground infrastructure scene being adopted by geothermal firms. Why? To make them extra dependable,  have much less downtime, decrease their prices, decrease long-term upkeep, decrease the whole value of possession, and prolong the lifetime of the useful resource.

Typically, make them extra financial is what we want to do. If you’re producing electrical energy, it’s normally a enterprise with a fairly skinny revenue margin. It’s actually vital that we assist the geothermal operators be as environment friendly as they will and preserve the associated fee base as little as we will to assist the economics of the challenge.

I hoped {that a} geothermal challenge will make it the listing of finalists for the Going Digital awards, but it surely appears this isn’t but the yr for that. What do suppose are the challenges holding again geothermal from having a extra distinguished function and the way does Seequent assist handle these challenges?

I feel the problem for geothermal proper now could be that it’s a small a part of the vitality trade. Within the rating of the place our vitality comes from, geothermal is commonly labeled into “Others”. It’s extremely specialist, and it’s not a department or subset of every other trade – it’s its personal factor.

I feel the opposite problem is that it’s bodily situated in very particular locations, such Indonesia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Iceland, and the West Coast of the U.S. It’s not ubiquitous world wide, so it’s not on the it’s not entrance of thoughts for lots of people. So then it turns into a visibility downside.

One factor we will attempt to do, with the worldwide protection and model recognition we have now, is simply attempt to preserve the flag flying for geothermal. We give it recognition amongst individuals and governments we converse to, and even different industries. As a expertise firm, giving it that diploma of visibility is a contribution we will make.

I feel that the subsurface information visualization that Seequent supplies may help in selling consciousness and understanding of geothermal methods.

It does, as a result of geothermal just isn’t well-understood. It all the time pursuits me how a lot we get requested about geothermal despite the fact that it’s a small proportion of our enterprise. Most of the people are simply fascinated about the place it comes from and the way it works. Individuals are thinking about it, and we simply should holding making the trouble to boost its visibility.