Marcellus Shale Fracking – Transloading Bulk Materials for Marcellus Shale Drilling

Posts Tagged ‘crystalline silica’

When it comes to shale fracking, there are some important components that make this procedure a success. One of them is the horizontal drilling approach to the wellbore. This allows for a great amount of surface area of the shale rock bed to be exposed to the pressure and fracking medium.

The greater the area exposed, the more the fracking of the rock bed will occur with less effort by the crew. Less effort can be equated as less time for the process to be a success. Like all businesses, natural gas and oil exploration is done to increase the revenue stream of those sponsoring the well. The faster it is completed, the sooner the crew can move onto the next well.

One factor in the extraction process of the energy reserve that is trapped in the shale rock bed is the ease at which the shale is fractured and the size of these fractures. To deal with the different size fractures in the wellbore, there are a 3 different mediums that are added to the slurry to keep these fractures open.

The most common is crystalline silica (sand) or quartz. This material is insoluble in water and has a specific gravity of 2.65. The melting point of this material is 1710 C which is how it withstands the pressure that is exerted in the wellbore without changing form.

This frac sand is also coated with a polymer resin when the fracture openings in the wellbore are needed to be slightly larger. This medium has a higher crush level and makes the sand particles rounder for more penetration than the irregular shapes sand particles.

The last type is the ceramics or polycrystalline alumina mixed with glass ceramics. The ceramics have the highest melting points which reach up to 4000 C. This medium is the roundest of all the fracking material, which allows for maximum penetration.

Immaterial of which one is used for shale fracking, they all serve the same purpose. To hold open the cracks to allow the natural gas or oil to permeate through the fissure so it can be collected at the surface of the wellbore.