There are many different ways to efficiently gain oil or gas in today’s society. One way to gain these two substances is by “fracking”, which is well known as “hydraulic fracking”. Fracking relies on two techniques, which is hydraulic fracking or horizontal drilling. Fracking is a very well stimulated technique, where rocks are fractured by a liquid that is pressurized. The process involves a very high pressure liquid called “fracture fluid” to be injected into rocks to create cracks through the formations of natural gas, petroleum, and brine to let them flow more freely. Other things that are injected can be water, sand, and other chemicals. Hydraulic fracking is mainly known for the extraction of oil and natural gasses such as methane and shale gas. The fracking usually occurs over a two week time period in around a fifty year life cycle of oils or gasses, and sometimes even both. It is made to protect the infrastructure, and increase gas recovery. Fracking is known to be own of the greatest and most effective ways to extract oils, and other gasses.
There is a very detailed process that goes behind all this science. It all starts with a drilled well, that is either vertically in the Earth surface or at an angle and usually has a depth of a mile or two or more which is around 1.6 to 3.2 kilometers. After digging the well, it is then encased in cement or a type of metal like steel, to keep any gasses or oil from running into the ground. Once the well is encased and reaches a deep layer of oil, rocks and gasses, the well. turns so that it can be drilled horizontally above the layer of rocks. This horizontal well can go on for longer than a mile which is around 1.6 kilometers. After all the encasing and drilling is done, fracture fluid, water, sand, and chemicals are pumped into the well at the highest pressures.
There are many substances in “fracture fluids” that are used. These substances in the “fracture fluids” can include amides, which are defined as a derivative of carboxylic acids where the hydroxyl is replaced by ammonia or amine. Another substance is aromatic hydrocarbons, which are also known as arene is a hydrocarbon paired with sigma and pi electrons forming a circle between carbon atoms. There are also many more substances to “fracture fluids” like polymers, petroleum distillates, organic salts and other inorganic substances. All the substances once added to the well are pumped with around 9000 pounds per square inch. Another fluid that is used to break down the rocks is called “slickwater”, which is mainly water with many chemicals and supplements. Chemical additives can act as many different factors including: biocides, which is a poisonous substance used for pesticides. Another factor that the chemicals act as surfactants, which is a substance that reduces the surface tension of a liquid when dissolving.
There are many more factors such as friction reducers, buffers, scale and corrosion inhibitors, and proppants, which is a solid material made for keeping an induced hydraulic fracture open. Supplements can be anything from acids to disinfectants. The supplements that are added usually make up only about .5 to two percent of the slickwater while the other 98-99.5 percent is water. Other things that are added are proppants, like sand and ceramic particles. These proppants often help when they are inserted into the rocks because when they are inserted they usually expand under pressure, which allows the gasses and oil to flow more freely. Once rocks are destroyed, and the proppants are in place, gas and oil are released and continue to be pumped to the surface. While the gasses and oils are pumped to the surface there are millions of gallons of “flowback” liquid as well. These “flowback liquids” contain many substances including: metals, radioactive material, toxins, and hydrocarbons. All this wastewater is again used for fracking or is disposed in a water treatment
facility. There is also another type of water that comes out of the rocks which is called “formation water”, which is almost always salty and has very high levels of radon. Radon is a radioactive gas that comes from uranium when it decays in the subsurface. On the other hand, the future of fracking has natural gas increasing to almost 92.5 Billion Cubic Feet Per Day. Although shale gas is a good way of heating and comes from fracturing, it only has a limited supply because it is a fossil fuel.
There are many pros to hydraulic fracking and it can help benefit the society with many advantages. Some of these pros can include, if there were to be any shortages in oils or gasses, fracking can easily resolve the issue and will lead into having safer thoughts of extracting oil and gas. When fracturing works along with drilling oil, it completely avoids fuel shortages which makes it a great benefit to our economy. This includes not depending on other foregin oils and glasses to our countries expenses and saves our society’s bills. Another benefit from fracturing, is it can reduce surface toxicity. This means since hydraulic fracking has most of the chemicals, additives, and substances pressurized underneath the Earth’s surface, it would not cause as much damage, as if it were released in the Earth’s atmosphere. Fracking has also greatly reduced the amount of coal being used by americans.
Half of the amount of electricity that was generated to Americans all came from coal in 2008. In 2012, the percent dropped by thirteen and made it only thirty seven percent of electricity was being generated from coal, just because of fracking. This advantage has also led to the rise of natural gas from twenty to thirty percent and has made many improvements in nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide. The final advantage to hydraulic fracking is that taking the methane out from deep inside the Earth can help ground water reduces the risk of being contaminated. Not having a fracking site near an area can let methane gas escape from a tiny hole in the Earth and creep into the groundwater making it contaminated and easily light on fire.
Although there were many pros to the idea of fracking there are also many cons and disadvantages to the idea of fracking as well. One of the disadvantages to fracking is that it often leaks methane. Methane is one of the strongest pollutants in the Earth’s atmosphere, and by extracting the oils and gasses it creates a leak where methane can escape and cause a difference in climate change. Another disadvantage is when fracking can contaminate the drinking water. This is led by the methane making our drinking water flammable and have blown out wells and other water supplies. Another way the water is harmful for the community is by the chemicals that are used in the fracturing liquid. There were eight billion gallons of oil extracted by Fracking in California. On the other hand, there were 130 billion gallons of wastewater that was made to get the oil. This comes to a down side of fifteen gallons of wastewater to only a gallon of water. Finally, there are many earthquakes that have been happening in the regions where there are fracking sites. Earthquakes have had a huge increase in today’s society since around the 1900’s- 2000’s. There have been only around twenty one earthquakes per year from 1967-2000. After fracking sites were made in 2011, there were around 188 earthquakes per year. This makes fracking have a major disadvantage to most places around the world.
All around fracking has it wide range of advantages and disadvantages. It helps many people find a job, increases economic activity, and much more, but it maybe having health impacts because of water and air pollution. Recent studies show that newborns around two mile away from a fracking site, have been suffering from poor health. Adding to the health problems, babies that were born a mile or less away from a fracking site, have been born at a low weight than most other babies. Fracking has taken a huge impact on today’s society’s newborns, by them
having birth defects, low weight, and months of gestation. On the other hand, it is a good idea to know that the problem does not go beyond where the fracking site is. So the closer you are to the fracking site, the more likely it is for the baby to have less weight. Do to the recent study there is many health impacts and concerns to fracking, but an easy way to get rid of this situation is to make the fracking sites in a less populated area.
Although there are many cons to the whole idea of fracking, there are also many advantages that can take care of the problems easily. Fracking is a great way to extract oils and natural gasses, and can keep the economy of running out. It can also save one money because instead of importing oil from out of the country, we can extract our own and it will be cheaper.There are many more pros than cons to the idea of fracking and it can make a huge difference in today’s society. Fracking can supply current fossil fuels longer, whereas renewable energy sources such as solar powered and windmills can have a much longer term idea on increasing carbon and maintaining supplies of energy. I think that fracking is a great way to extract oils and to save people a lot of money. Even though there can be many consequences to fracking, most of them can be resolved and get taken care of with not a lot of work. Although for the health impact, one might need to stay distant from a fracking site when wanting a newborn. Overall I love the idea of fracking and think the topic is really interesting. However there still is some work that needs to be done to reduce the health impact on newborns, but fracking is still a great way to extract our own gasses and oils.
