An Experimental Investigation into CO₂ Laser-Based Processing of Boulder and Marble

Laser rock drilling has the potential to surpass the conventional drilling methods for rock excavation and mineral exploration. The traditional drilling methods using mechanical drill bits have limitations such as high material wastage, high carbon emission, and low depth of penetration. The laser rock-drilling technology presents solutions to cope with these limitations. It has advantages such as non-contact material processing, indirect reduction in carbon emission through lesser material wastage, and higher depth and rate of penetration. However, certain challenges like wellbore instability, complex purging process, instability in controlling laser interaction parameters, and difficulty in controlling temperature and pressure in downhole conditions are currently inhibiting laser-based drilling from being implemented on a full industrial scale in oil and gas industries. In this work, preliminary experimental investigations have been carried out to analyze the influence of lasers on commonly available rock materials like boulders and marble. The influence of altering the scanning speed and laser power on the surface morphology of boulder and marble was observed. The prospect of penetration depth measurement through optical microscopy has also been checked.