Wednesday, September 12, 2018

How To Achieve Clean Fracking Technology

By Angela Anderson


Currently, the globe depends on petroleum energy sources hugely. Some form of petroleum energy is involved in almost all processes people engage in. Actually, the economies of some countries entirely depend on products made from petroleum. This is the reason there is usually a rippling effect on the economy of the world when there are slight alterations in prices of oil products and oil itself.

As a result of the high dependence on petroleum products, extraction continues to be researched to come up with more efficient methods. Research aims to maximize on production while lowering cost. One of the most recent technologies that have been invented to be used in extracting oil is called fracking. Even though it is very effective, there are efforts to achieve clean fracking technology.

The word fracking is the shortened version of hydrauling fracturing, a procedure in which chemicals, sand and water are injected underground in order to fracture layers of rock to give access to the oil. A very high pressure is employed in pumping the mixture of chemicals, sand and water in order to yield the force needed in cracking layers of rock.

Other names that are used to refer to this technology include hydrofracturing, hydrofracking, and fraccing. The mixture of sand, water, and chemicals is referred to as fracking fluid. After the cracks have been created by the fluid, petroleum, brine, and natural gas can then flow more freely. When hydraulic pressure is eventually removed from the wells, the fractures created remain open. They are held open by tiny grans of hydraulic fracturing proppants.

The history of fracking technology is long, even though its popularity only happendd in mid 2000s. As early as 1949, fracking technology was being used. In places such as Kansas, it was employed to enahnce gas flow in wells. In 2000s however, oil firms found techniques though which horizontal drilling could be used together with fracking, while incurring low costs in extraction processes.

Chemicals are heavily used in this whole process. Therefore, the process cannot be categorized as being environmentally friendly. However, efforts are being made to make it more environmentally friendly. Among the ways of reducing pollution is the use of additives that reduce friction. Research shows that this method allows for the use of brine or recycled water.

Heavy equipment pieces that use diesel engines are used in the process of pumping and drilling to extract oil. A lot of carbon and harmful pollutants are released to the air by these engines. The process can be made considerably cleaner when engines that use natural gas and other cleaner energy sources replace diesel engines. Costs would also be reduced by almost 40 percent.

A major concern in sites where oil is extracted is emission of methane. It has been recently discovered that much methane gas makes its way into the air. A study discovered that in excess of 50 percent of methane makes its way into the atmosphere above the official estimates given by the US government. The process can be made cleaner by finding methods of checking the leakage of methane into the air.




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