Monday, October 29, 2018

Information On Clean Fracking Technology

By Jose Foster


Although fracking is only attaining popularity today, it is a technology that has been around for about two centuries. Other names used to refer to this process include hydraulic fracturing, faccing, hydrofracking, and hydrofracturing. According to history, this technology has been around since the 1800s. During that time, gas and oil shale formations underground were reached using explosives instead of water. Facts regarding clean fracking technology.

Later in the 1930s, companies decided to start using non-explosives. To determine how effective non-explosives can be, experiments were carried out in the course of the next decade. By 1949, the hydrofrac technology was invented. The adoption of the new technology gained a lot of popularity by 1950s. At the time, the adoption was happening at the rate of 3000 wells per month.

Around 750 gallons of fluid was needed in the early models of this technology. Gelled kerosene, gelled crude oil, 400 pounds of sand, and water were the ingredients of the fluid. That quantity and fluid composition would be used for a very long period. There are some changes that have occurred today. The changes allow some 75000 to 320000 pounds of sand and 8 million gallons of clean or wastewater to be consumed

Advancements in technology have also allowed for the use of different forms of fluid. Some of the common types of fluids in use are slickwater, gels, and foams. Modern fracking fluid is composed of several different ingredients, including guan gum, biocines, friction reducers, diesel fuel, hydrochloric acid, and benzene. Most of these ingredients are highly harmful to the environment. That is why there are calls everywhere demanding that hydrofracking should be made environmentally friendly.

There should be careful disposal of wastewater produced to avert negative impact because a lot of water is utilized in fracking. Prior to 1985, all the resultant wastewater found its way in waterways of the state such as lakes, oceans and rivers. Today, however, it is different since the water is disposed in deep wells. These are also called brine disposal wells.

Besides disposing wastewater in deep wells, some private treatment facilities acquire it for processing into useful water. Even though the water can be processed and refined, not all of it can be processed successfully. Wastewater that cannot be processed usually contain hydrofracturing fluid and must be disposed in landfills or pumped into deep wells. Disposal into landfills and deep wells was once deemed error proof but that has changed now as some problems are associated with the process.

One of the main adverse effects associated with disposal of wastewater is contaminated drinking water. Somehow, the wastewater finds its way back into the water system and causes pollution. Also, water depletion has come up as a major effects associated with the use of such large amounts of water on oil extraction. Lastly, the environment is also affected negatively by both the process of hydrofracking and water disposal methods.

To minimize the adverse effects of fraccing as a whole, there are suggestions to find ways of reusing wastewater. To this effect, some techniques have been invented that make reuse of wastewater possible. Other ways of minimizing pollution include eliminating methane escape, reducing amounts of fresh water used for the process, and using alternative energy sources other than diesel.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment