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Hydraulic fracturing, AKA fracking, is an incredibly
controversial method of extracting shale gas. There are a
lot of good reasons for the controversy. If you want to hear
some of the points on both sides, I'll provide a link below to
a recent debate on the subject.
My question is: why do
we
need millions of gallons of water
and over 500 chemicals mixed in with it to break a bunch of
rocks 8,000 ft below the surface? I submit that we do not,
in fact, need such a Rube Goldberg method.
So I propose a government-funded contest, X-Prize style, to
find a commercially viable means of extracting
commercially viable quantities of shale gas that does not
pose any risk to local drinking water supplies or air quality,
or risk of salinating fresh water streams/rivers/lakes. Extra
points will be awarded for eliminating the causing of
earthquakes, as well, though that is not a requirement for
my purposes.
A good debate on the subject
http://intelligence...more-harm-than-good
[21 Quest, Jul 25 2012]
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Drill holes. Put heavy-duty speaker systems at the bottom of each hole. Play really loud, shatteringly loud, rock music. |
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This contest is underway in earnest, funded not only by the government but myriad other payors. Also there is no single arbiter of whether a method provides low risk but many including existing public safety agencies, courts, homeowners groups and so on. |
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Why not combine fracking with subterranean nuclear weapons testing ? Two for the price of one ... |
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That's actually a good idea but you'd want consistent yield small h-bombs. |
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What are the error bars on that ? |
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The larger the projected (blast) yield, the smaller the acceptable deviance. |
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the Russians managed to get an h-bomb down to less than 3% fission. That's probably less poisonous than the crap they're pumping in there now.
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1) dig a hole down past the strata
2) drill sideways as far as you can in 6 directions for a kilometer, leaving the drill-pipe in.
3) fill drill-pipes with LiD, attach primary to the ends.
4) get out, fill in the hole.
5) foom - 4sq km fracked. |
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// fill drill-pipe with LiD, attach primary to the end. //
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Not that simple; you need a neutron reflector, and the ratio of length to diameter is ever so slightly more important than you might think.
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The Teller-Ulam model is fairly well constrained in terms of geometry.
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Sp. "Light the Blue Touchpaper and retire to a Safe Distance". |
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I was thinking of having a "bring your own manhole cover" party.
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//Not that simple// true I could go on about shaped tungsten pipe liner and a uranium wire running the length of the drill-pipe, etc. |
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Wouldn't the fusion make a better power source than the
bit of mildly combustible fossil fuels in the hole? |
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If you want to lose a little bit more faith in humanity
consider this: in North Carolina, fracking was approved
(even on peoples property via imminent domain) to acquire
a miniscule amount of natural gas. In North Dakota, the oil
fields produce so much excess natural gas that it could
power the entire city of Grand Forks, but the oil is more
profitable so the gas is burned off. |
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With enough funding from the right kind of mad genius
investors, I think I could bring the oil and natural gas up
without digging a hole:
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Fracking involves shoving a bunch of water underneath the
deposit and forcing it to the surface. This is amatuer hour
antics. There is already water there, deep in the Earth's
crust, under great pressure and very, very angry. Using
focused electromagnetic fields and a little bit of sci-fi
magic that currently is just beyond our grasp, we induce
the water to rise by creating a giant subterranean
microwave oven. The oil and natural gas will then be
forced to the surface. Eureka! |
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If we can create a subterranean microwave oven, why do we need oil and gas? |
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