Hydro whating?A student’s guide to hydrofracking, fracking,

hydraulic fracturing, or bustin up rocks to get gas.

 Shales are fine-grained sedimentary rocks rich in petroleum and natural gas.

Both the Marcellus and Utica Shale were formed by the accumulation of sediment in a sea beginning about 417 million years ago

Buried and compressed to produce an organic-rich black shale

What is shale?

Where is the Marcellus Shale?(Well, yeah, Marcellus, but where else?)

Fracking is the well development process typically involving injecting water, sand, and chemicals under high pressure into a bedrock formation via the well. This process is intended to create new fractures in the rock as well as increase the size, extent, and connectivity of existing fractures.

What is fracking?

Aerial image of fracking site.

Methane, CH4 Ethane, C2H6 Propane, C3H8 Butane, C4H10 Carbon Dioxide, CO2 Oxygen, O2  Nitrogen, N2  Hydrogen sulphide H2S

So what is shale gas?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/101022-breaking-fuel-from-the-rock/

(National Geographic)

Let’s go to a model.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uti2niW2BRA

(2:30)

And now let’s put it in motion.

A typical drill pad in the Marcellus Shale. Pictured here are pumps, generators, fuel, chemicals, sand, pipes, service trucks, and other infrastructure required for the involved process of hydraulic fracturing.

Equipment set up to pump water from a lake to impoundment pond.

A water impoundment . This water will be combined with chemicals and sand, then used to create artificial fractures in gas-bearing rocks to allow the gas to be recovered.

The drilling pad can be seen on the left, and the edge of the water impoundment berm can be seen at the top of the wall on the right.

Water storage tanks at a drill pad. Water is pumped from an impoundment area into these tanks, which supply the hydraulic fracturing operation.

These perforating “guns” are inserted underground into gas wells to make holes, or perforations, through the casing and surrounding cement and into the rock, creating new fractures. This creates a connection between the oil- or gas-producing rock formation and the well, so that the petroleum can be produced from the well. The perforations and initial rock fractures allow hydraulic fracturing fluid to be pumped into the rock formation, creating many new fractures.

Unused and spent perforating gun. The pipe on the bottom left, shows holes created by the explosive charges mounted inside the pipe.

This process involves a suite of chemicals, in addition to sand and water. These chemicals perform tasks like lubricating the pipes, preventing coagulation, and helping the sand keep the fractures open.

Control system for blow-out preventers. A blowout preventer is a valve used to seal, control and monitor wells. Blowout preventers were developed to cope with extreme erratic pressures and uncontrolled flows that could erupt from a well reservoir during drilling.

The red installation in the center of the image shows a gas/mud separator. During drilling, the drilling fluid used to cool the bit and bring rock cuttings to the surface may contain natural gas. Equipment such as this gas/mud separator are used during drilling to separate the gas from the other materials before safely burning or flaring it onsite. After completion of the well, permanent separators are installed so that only gas is introduced into pipelines for transport to gas processing facilities.

A flare stack to burn excess natural gas. During drilling, gas may be encountered that needs to be safely burned to prevent hazardous work conditions. Later, after completion of the well, large amounts of gas are produced for sale.