gas barbecue grill New Waterless Fracking Method Avoids Pollution Problems, But Drillers Slow to Embrace It

Little-It is worth noting that drilling technology uses propane gel instead of water to release natural gas.The high cost, lack of data and industry habits hindered the process.Anthony Brino, Climate News and Brian Close of the Albany TimesAlbany Union, New YorkY.—In the debate about hydraulic fracturing of natural gas, there are two facts beyond question: a large amount of water is used to break down natural gasAfter the process was completed, the rocks deep in the ground and a large amount of contaminated water were returned to the surface.Water contaminated with chemicals, salt, and even mild radioactivity, if not properly handled, can damage the environment and threaten drinking water, which helps spark a heated debate in New York and other states, discuss whether gas drilling is worth cleaning drinking water, rivers and streams.Now, an emerging technology has developed in Canada and just entered the United States.S.The need for water was eliminated.Instead, it relies on a thick gel made of propane, a wide rangeGas that anyone who lights up a backyard grill can use.Called liquefied propane gas fracturing, or simply called "gas fracturing," the waterless method was developed by GasFrac, a small energy company based in Calgary, Alberta.Still waiting for patent in the United StatesS.The technology has been used about 1,000 times since 2008, mainly for gas wells in Alberta, Canada, said Robert laez, chief technology officer of gasFrac, A small number of test wells in BC and New Brunswick, as well as Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, orclama and New Mexico.Like water, propane gel is pumped into a shale formation a mile or more underground, creating tremendous pressure to break the rock to release trapped gas bubbles.Like water, the gel also has particles of sand or peoplemade material—Called support agentThese gases are forced into cracks to keep them open so that they can flow out.Unlike water, this gel has a disappearing effect in the ground.It will return to steam due to pressure and heat and then return to the surface-With gas.Used for collection, possible reuse, and final resale.Unlike water, propane does not carry chemicals, ancient undersea salts, and underground radioactive substances back to the surface."We leave our noses on the ground, and they belong here ."David Burnett, a professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A & M University, is one of the leading oil engineering schools in the United States, saying it makes sense to use propane fracturing.Burnett, who runs the environmental drilling system project, said: "From the perspective of reservoir engineering, there is no reason why this is invalid, a project from the University and the Houston Advanced Research Center, a non-for-Profit academic and business alliance.With the support of some of the largest energy companies in the United States and the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency, drilling projects seek to develop new technologies for natural gas and oil in a safe and environmental manner.Burnett says two purposes can be achieved by replacing water with gas.Protect the environment and reduce the cost of processing and handling contaminated water in the drilling industry.But at least not yet, he said, propane fracturing "won't change the rules of the game "."This is a very conservative industry," Burnett said .""The engineers want to see what other people do first, and they want the data.He said: "Most companies that have tried GasFrac technology have not publicly released data, which may be out of fear of revealing its benefits to potential competitors.Searching for public research reports in the Archives of the Petroleum Engineers Association found that there were only two case studies of wells using propane fracturingEach in 2011 and 2009."You need one or two wells to prove this to the industry," Burnett said .".Because gas fracturing is a proprietary method owned by a company that is still very small, it has limited capacity to provide and serve many new users, "if more people want to use this technology, the cost may rise.So GasFrac is a bit in trouble.22."Propane fracturing technology is still in its infancy and it is only time to tell if this technology will make progress in the global drilling industry that is starting to use waterHydraulic fracturing technology in the 1940 s has invested a lot of money.Natural gas fracking is now in use in more than a dozen states, Canada and around the world."The infrastructure of water is in place and people have invested millions of dollars," Lester said ."."Sometimes, good is a great enemy.In addition to the better environment, propane fracturing can also be more effective because it allows more gas to flow out of the well rather than from the water, Lestrez said.Based on fracturing.Unlike water, all propane leaves the broken rock, and part of the water remains behind and can be absorbed into the Rock, partially blocking the passage through which the gas escapes.In addition, the propane method uses only about one quarter of the number of truck tripsHe said that based on the use of fracking, the impact on local roads, noise and dust troubles on neighbors, and the cost of truck transportation for drilling workers were all reduced.However, although propane can be resold once recovered, the cost of initial use is higher.It is also explosive and requires special equipment to be properly handled to reduce risks.On January, one of Canada's largest energy companies, Husky Energy, had a fire at a liquefied petroleum gas well drilled in Alberta, one of the first companies to accept LPG drilling.Despite no casualties, three workers were burned.The undiscovered propane leak was the culprit, Lester said, and the company subsequently added more monitoring equipment to reduce risk.Now there are 20 propane sensors in Wells, increasing from 3 to 1, and an infrared video monitor that allows oil well workers to see gas leaks.A spokesman for Alberta's Department of Occupational Health and Security said the accident was still under investigation.A spokesman for Husky declined a reporter's question, saying it did not want to be involved in any debate about gas drilling.However, in September, Husky used the new three-A two-year contract.Annual renewal option.A month before that, GasFrac received $100 million from HSBC Canada, Bank of Montreal and Alberta Treasury to help it grow.Leicester said the company expects to be able to expand its equipment "fleet" from two in 2010 to more than a dozen by 2012.Propane agesan industry executives say the cost of Propane does make it hard to sell."Propane will always be more expensive than water," said Roger Willis, president of Penn Universal Drilling Services, which provides drilling equipment for the industry."But in some cases, propane fracturing can be useful....The economics of doing so will be quite complicated.You have to weigh the cost and recycling of propane with the transportation and handling of water."The lobby group, the New York Petroleum and Gas Association, recommended a reporter to Willis after being asked about the group's position on propane fracturing.New York is expected to allow municipal sewer treatment plants to receive "produced" water, which have been modified and approved by the state to properly handle drilling contaminants.However, no factory in New York is currently approved.How to safely transport and treat millions of gallons of production wastewater is one of the problems faced by the New York Department of Environmental Protection when considering opening the state to fracking.The state estimates that between 1,600 and 2,500 gas wells may eventually be fracked each year.The rich Marcellus shale is an underground formation that extends from the western Catskill to the Finger Lake and the southern layer, almost to Buffalo, to the south to Pennsylvania and West Virginia.The average well can be used up to 7.8 million gallons of water;It's about the fifth return surface that needs to be treated.Therefore, billions of gallons of tap water must be transported in trucks and transported out of trucks for disposal elsewhere.Just as New York was trying to avoid repeating Penn's water treatment problems, propane fracturing was emerging, and drilling wastewater from Penn's conventional sewage treatment plant eventually contaminated rivers in the western part of the state --Including some sources of drinking water in Pittsburgh, the Allegheny River.This spring, Penn officials found that a large amount of Bromo in the treated drilling wastewater had been changed by chlorine --Treat sewage into carcinogenic substances.The state requires drilling companies to voluntarily stop discharging drilling wastewater to more than a dozen treatment plants.New York, New York, December several paragraphs of the Ministry of Environmental Protection propane hydraulic fracturing technology in 1,500-Draft general environmental impact report on natural gas drilling in September.The company briefly announced that the technology was "not mature enough" to support drilling in New York.LPG technology is not only more expensive than water, but also a proprietary technology for GasFrac, So availability is limited, it was said in December.But the agency also appears to recognize the potential of the technology, adding: "While it is not yet known whether or when it will propose hydraulic fracturing of liquefied petroleum gas in New York, it is not yet known...The availability of infrastructure may be an important factor in achieving this technological advantage."New York seems to already have a ready-made source of propane for fracturing, as a major propane pipeline runs through the center of the Southern layer of the Marcellus Shale area from Pennsylvania.Before continuing into New England, the Teppco pipeline runs through Watkins Glen, Oneta, and Selkirk."When we have a proposal or an application for review, we think the technology will be" mature "," said Charsleissa King, a spokeswoman for December, on December."There is nothing in front of us at this point.To gain a full understanding of the technology, we met with GasFrac.He admits his company does not have enough equipment to push its approach to the mainstream.He said the company hopes to establish a "strategic alliance" with larger, unidentified drilling companies to make their processes more accessible."New York is very important.None of the companies there put their cards on the table, so it's still a virgin territory, "said Laiz, who went to New York twice for propane fracturing.The drilling company said that the performance of the two independent gas drilling companies operating liquefied petroleum gas wells is being guaranteed.One outside Moncton in New Brunswick, a few hours north of the Maine border, and another Maverick County in Texas, near the Rio Grande River and Mexico --They think the technology is promising.Calgary-Jadela Petroleum, based in Texas, drilled a well using GasFrac equipment in August.Greg Lee, president of the company, said preliminary results show gas is flowing and now the well is "closed"Pressure is allowed to be generated so that gas can be collected."My intuition is that this is a way," Li said .".He said that liquefied petroleum gas can increase the production of gas wells by eliminating the potential blockage of water retained in broken rock, which can close some channels for trapped gas to rise.While propane must be handled carefully, the drilling industry should also pay more attention to the risks associated with fracking, Li said.Burnett of the Environmental Protection CenterThe friendly drilling program at Texas A & M says his team has been trying to obtain data from Jadela's propane gas well so far, but has not been successful."This is the technology our group is trying to position, document and then provide this information to the industry.Philip Noel, president of Nova ScotiaThe company said it started drilling propane Wells in New Brunswick in 2009.Corridor Resources helped to prepare a 2011 case study that was available through the Association of Petroleum Engineers.The results show that the gas fracturing method is feasible."Compared to other technologies, we have achieved absolutely great results," said Noel."This technology is improving significantly.His company also uses water.Based on hydraulic fracturing.Since drilling 2008 liquefied petroleum gas wells in BC, all of them have been drilled by GasFrac, said Sandra Stroo, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Energy and Mines.No accident report.She explained why LPG methods were not widely used."As far as we know, the technology has not proven the cost so far --"It works for gas wells," she said ."."This technology works best when there is enough infrastructure to allow the capture and re-capture of propaneused."The internal news worked with the Albany (New York) times to produce the report --Union.