Marcellus Shale Fracking – Transloading Bulk Materials for Marcellus Shale Drilling

Posts Tagged ‘Propane Fracking’

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Author: things on shelves.

The alternatives to hydrofracking are very limited because of the specific task it performs to help extract the necessary energy that is constantly being demanded by the American consumer. The one alternative that has less of an environmental impact while still performing the same function is called propane fracking.

Propane fracking uses a liquid propane gel along with other items such as frac sand that are pumped into the shale oil rock wells under extreme pressure. This pressure is used to break up the shale rock layer and allow the trapped oil and gas to be released in a recoverable way.

The major advantage of using this new fracking method over the hydrofracking method, there is no water used. Because of this, there is no waste water stream being produced by the process. With no waste water stream, the cleanup after the fracking process is easier to complete.

Another reason for using the propane fracking process over hydrofracking is the speed in which the well can be brought back into production. In most cases after the hydrofracking procedure is completed, the water is channeled out of the well for up to a week. This water is then collected and placed in a pond on the premises of the well for treatment and or disposal at a later date.

The propane fracking process has to recover the liquefied gel propane, but the time and waste products are very different. The propane is placed in the well as a gel, but after the pressure is exerted on the gel, it changes state to a gas. This gas is then allowed to escape leaving behind the frac sand to keep the newly formed fissures open.

As this frac gas escapes from the bore head of the well, it is trapped just like the natural gas is collected. This is then kept and recycled at a later date. This process only takes up to 48 hours before the well can be back in production of recovering the energy reserve that had been previously trapped below ground.

With the present state of technology and the increasing demand for energy from the American public and the world, there is no other practical alternative to hydrofracking.

For those opponents to the fracking process, the alternatives are very simple. Either stop using energy, allow fracking to continue or rely even more on foreign energy imports to help sustain the economy. This is due to the fact that the only other alternatives to hydrofracking would involve strip mining to recover the energy reserve. That would do even more environmental damage that what is suspected of hydrofracking.

Related articles

• Frack Sand Described (transloading.org)
• Oil Shale Fracking (transloading.org)
• Marcellus Shale Fracking Benefits (transloading.org)

The use of fracking sand is specific for the natural gas and oil exploration field. This is the material that keeps the fissures opened in the rock bed once the pressure is released from either hydrofracking or propane fracking.

The reason this material is used is because of its physical properties. The sand itself is very dense and round in shape. This gives it strength against crushing. Since the particles are small and only become loosely packed when in the well, it is very permeable that allows the oil and natural gas to be extracted. Both of these qualities are what are needed to keep a fracture in the rock bed open thousands of feet below the surface.
There are three basic types of sand that are used for this purpose.

1) – Northern Sand or Brady Sand comes from Santrol of Fairmount Minerals that is transloaded from Wexford Lake Sand in Yuma, Michigan.  It is a high silica content 40 – 70 mesh.

2) – Ottawa sand is generally 95% or greater SiO2 and is very spherical in shape. The size of this sand can vary from 12 to 270 on the Tyler mesh scale. The quarries this sand comes from are located in the northeastern part of the United States and Canada.

3) -  Texas or brown sand. This has higher silica content, generally around 99% SiO2, but is not spherical in shape. The irregularity of the shape does allow for this type of sand to be more permeable than Ottawa sand by some well operators. The size of sand that can be purchased for fracking is from 8 to 100 on the Tyler mesh scale. These deposits are located in the southern part of America concentrated in the state of Texas.

For many well operators, the specific kind of sand they use is dictated by the region of the country they are located in. This is due to the economical cost of transporting the fracking sand over long distances. Both do a sufficient job for the purpose they are called on to do and are used in 90% of all wells in the United States.

Contact the sponsor of this Blog, Tran-Z, for your frack sand needs.

Read our previous article on fracking sand:

The fracking methods that are deployed by the natural gas and oil explorers only involve two similar kinds. There is hydrofracking and propane fracking. Both use a similar slurry of frac sand and surfactant of about 0.5% of the overall components, but the main component is where the difference lies.

Hydrofracking involves the use of water as the main fluid source. This is a known substance that is non-toxic and non-hazardous to use and work with. This method involves a slurry mixture of 99.5% water and the remainder consisting of frac sand and surfactants. This slurry is pumped down into the borehole of the well at 100 barrels a minute, and the fracking pressure can be as high as 15,000 psi to crack the rock bed below. The fracking medium is recovered after the rock bed is cracked. The water returns to the surface and is held in a collection pond close to the borehole.

Propane fracking involves the same components but instead of water, a LPG in gel form is used. This, too, is non-hazardous and non-toxic while it is in gel form. Once it becomes a gas, there is a flammability issue that has to be addressed. The main difference is the way the medium is recovered. The LPG gel evaporates after the pressure is released, and the gas is contained in a tank instead of a pond.

This procedure has been used for over 60 years in the natural gas and oil exploration. What most people are unaware of is that it has other uses that have been deployed for the same amount of time. The most common is the use of fracking to stimulate a groundwater well. There has been some debate over the use of hydrofracking and what it is doing to the ground water, but they forget this is the method that is used to keep old water wells functioning.

Other uses include the use of fracking to help carve out mines, and for the tunnel construction for roads and railroads. This is a far safer method than with the use of dynamite.

The fracking methods that are being deployed today have many beneficial uses that include more than just extending the recovery efforts of the natural gas and oil wells.

The new alternative to hydrofracking is propane fracking. This is considered the Green alternative when the cracking of rock layers underground is needed to extract a natural gas or oil reservoir that is trapped in shale rock beds.

The principal is basically the same as hydro fracking. Liquefied petroleum gas is pumped down a well bore and into the rock bed in a gel form. This cracks the shale rock bed without the formational damage other fracking methods might present.

One of the leading advantages of using LPG over water and oil based fracking techniques is the recovery of the fracking fluid. Sand and surfactants are used in the typical hydrofracking technique. This waste water then needs to be treated or stored securely after it is used. The propane fracturing technique is different.

The LPG method places the LPG in the well bore as a liquid or gel and upon completion of the fracking procedure it is withdrawn as a gas. Unlike the hydro fracking technique that takes up to 5 days to extract 50% of the hydrofracking medium, with LPG the time is only 24 to 48 hours at a rate of nearly 100%.

The recovery of this propane gas is done along with the same pipeline used to collect the natural gas. This allows for the elimination to flare sales gas for a week or more as which is common with hydro fracturing techniques.  There are even conservative estimates that this procedure increases the productivity of a well by 35%.

LPG is a highly flammable gas but is safe to work with in gel form. This is the form that is used in propane fracking for the natural gas industry.

Our sponsor, TranZ is in the business of supplying transportation for all types of goods needed in the Marcellus Shale gas fracking business.

Update on propane fracking an environmental consideration.