An email I received. The sender has asked me not to mention certain details :
Dear Sir,I am Nishithan doing Masters in the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras. I saw your post on facebook asking for the opinion of a scientist whose specialty is on hydrocarbon project. I am no scientist but I have read in detail about this technology and I have given a technical presentation in IIT Madras before 4 years when I was an Undergrad, so I know about this project in detail and I like to explain to you about this project in brief.
The original name is Shale gas Technology. Here it was first introduced as methane extraction and now changed to hydrocarbon extraction. Shale gas/Natural gas/Methane/Hydrocarbon are all the same.It got the name Shale gas as it is a gas trapped in the shale regions(sedimentary rocks) below the earth.It is nothing but the natural gas whose major component is methane.Hydrocarbon is the general name for any compound containing carbon and hydrogen (methane, ethane, propane..etc). Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene, LPG and other crude oil derivatives are all hydrocarbons.
Energy the conventional extraction techniques are not clean energies and this shale gas extraction technology is the dirtiest among them. Conventional technologies just drill the wells vertically and take the crude oil. But for this one we have to drill vertically for about 6 to 8 km (very much higher than the conventional one) to reach the sedimentary rock and then horizontally into it, by making a ninety-degree turn. Then fracking fluid has to be pumped into the drilled areas at high pressures to create fractures in the rocks. Then we have to suck out the fluid.Once the fluid is retrieved we would get shale gas and also shale oil in certain areas.
Advantages: Shale gas is a fossil fuel that can meet the energy demands and it is available in abundant. In Siberia during the 70s they accidentally dug up the shale rocks and found methane which is a poisonous gas. They thought that, as it is a poisonous and health hazardous instead of risking to extract why not burn it completly. Even after 40 years it is still burning. It is known as Devil's hole(http://webecoist.momtastic.com/…/the-gates-of-hell-forever…/). I just said this to give an idea how much gas is present.
Disadvantages:
1) It contaminates the ground water table (fracking fluid contains different chemicals which is a trade secret of the companies) and the water could not be used for drinking or agriculture.
2) The Government claims it requires only few acres to carry out the project but it fails to say that it contaminates the surrounding areas through underground(due to horizontal drilling).
3) 7 to 15 million of water is required per well(water is the major component of fracking fluid)
4) Earth quakes with Richter scale of 3.0 magnitude have been reported in USA due to this process(http://time.com/84225/fracking-and-earthquake-link/).
5) Disposing of the liquid waste will be a major task and in India we know how good they would handle the waste.(Recent example is the handling of oil spill in Ennore port)
6) This projec in India is planned to be carried out in agricultural lands (Fertile lands of Cauvery delta). In Canada, this project is carried out in regions which are 60 km away from human inhabitation.
Unfortunately the scientists and the oil companies wont speak about the disadvantages as they are just money minded.
Do we require this technology inspite of all these?
We can go for green technologies like solar photovoltaics, solar thermal energy and solar fuels(TN is very hot and humid)..We can harvest the solar energy efficiently in India.Countries like Netherlands is planning to go green completely in few decades.We can follow them in this aspect.
If you like to share this information please use only my first name.
Thanks and Regards,
Nishithan.
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