Saturday, November 10, 2018

Useful Knowledge 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.

Afterwards in the 1930s, firms decided to embrace the use of non-explosive methods. In the following decade, experiments were conducted extensively. The hydrofracking technology was developed by 1949. Adoption grew immensely in 1950s. During that time, the adoption rate stood at 3000 wells every month.

Over gallons of fluid were utilized in the initial models of fracking technology. The fluid was made up of gelled kerosene, 400 pounds of sand, water and gelled crude oil. The amount and composition of the fluid did not change for a long period. Today, there has been some slight changes. Around 8 million gallons of water and between 75000 and 32000 pounds of sand are utilized today.

Technological advancements have enabled the use of various fluid forms. A number of the fluids in use are foams, gels and slickwater. Present-day fracking fluid comprises elements like biocines, guan gum, diesel fuels, friction reducers, benzene and hydrochloric acid. Many of the listed ingredients are hazardous to the environment. This is why that there are demands all over that hydrofracking be made harmless to the environment.

The large amount of water consumed in the process calls for safe disposal to prevent environmental problems. State waterways such as lakes, rivers, and oceans were the final destination of the wastewater used in fraccing before1985. Changes have occurred currently, with wastewater being disposed in deep injection wells. Brine disposal well is also a term used for these wells.

Besides being disposed of in brine disposal wells, some private treatment facilities take the wastewater to process it. However, even though the wastewater can be processed, not all of it can be processed successfully. Some still contain hydrofracturing fluid and need to be injected back into the ground or disposed in landfills. Even though these disposal methods seemed error proof, they are now being discovered to have some bad effects.

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.

In order to scale down the impact resulting from fracking, there have been proposals on identifying methods of having wastewater reused. This has led to invention of a number of wastewater reuse methods. Additional methods of scaling down pollution are, reduction of amounts of freshwater used, preventing methane gas from escaping, and using other sources of energy instead of diesel.




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