I may not be as easy as you've made it out to be. Natural gas deposits are finite and the gas that you would extract would be a specific quantity for a specific locale. Each well would only be producing from the reach of it's fracked zone. You would need to pool the gas from many wells to make this work, each of which would only have a finite amount of gas. Then you drill more wells. The current pipeline system would work as a distribution system.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad idea, just one that would have a finite life and would still produce GHGs.
Also, from a technical perspective there is very little fluid used in fracking the Chattanooga Shale. It's "under pressured" meaning that the pressures aren't high enough to return the fluids to the surface, so fluid-based fracking would only clog the formation. More commonly the Chattanooga Shale is fracked with high pressure nitrogen. The fear of fracking fluids contaminating water wells in the Chattanooga Shale areas is largely unfounded.
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EnviroGeo writes:
I may not be as easy as you've made it out to be. Natural gas deposits are finite and the gas that you would extract would be a specific quantity for a specific locale. Each well would only be producing from the reach of it's fracked zone. You would need to pool the gas from many wells to make this work, each of which would only have a finite amount of gas. Then you drill more wells. The current pipeline system would work as a distribution system.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad idea, just one that would have a finite life and would still produce GHGs.
Also, from a technical perspective there is very little fluid used in fracking the Chattanooga Shale. It's "under pressured" meaning that the pressures aren't high enough to return the fluids to the surface, so fluid-based fracking would only clog the formation. More commonly the Chattanooga Shale is fracked with high pressure nitrogen. The fear of fracking fluids contaminating water wells in the Chattanooga Shale areas is largely unfounded.
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.