Use of Ceramics for Geothermal and Mining Applications

Abstract

Metals have historically been used in mining since they offer an excellent combination of hardness, toughness and cost and can be fabricated to form a variety of shapes. However, for many applications the metals used today have limited performance in the environments in which they are needed. This is particularly true for geothermal environments where the brines are highly siliceous causing corrosion and accelerated wear of many components. Geothermal sources are increasingly being explored for their high thermal value as well as possible sources for future minerals.

While advanced ceramics have historically been expensive to produce in comparison with metals, they offer significantly greater corrosion resistance and hardness and can improve the overall performance when used in selected “problem” areas. One of the major drawbacks in the use of ceramics in high impact areas has been their brittle nature and propensity to fracture and spall (fail) when loaded. Recent advances in the fabrication of ceramics have combined hard (strong) ceramics with more ductile ceramics in a architecturally designed microstructure, thus allowing ceramics to perform well in these high impact regions.

Additionally, ceramics are significantly more inert to corrosion from either alkaline or acidic environments and can typically be used for significantly longer periods in these environments than their metallic counterparts.