Comparing The Langmuir And Bet Isotherms

Generally, shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock created from silt and clay-size mineral particles with properties to substance we commonly call “mud”. In geological term, shale is categorized as one of the mudstones. Properties of shale is rather distinguishing as it is made up of many thin layers which readily splits into thin pieces of layers. Shale can be used for numerous application based on the substance which exist in the shale formation. Most shale can be crushed and mixed with water to create clays for molding into object or bricks for houses. Some shale can even create cement by combining with limestone. For this paper, we only focus on one specific shale category which is oil shale.

There are several types of shale that are drilled in which include: Bakken shale, Barnett shale, Eagle Ford shale, Haynesville shale, Marcellus shale, and Utica shale. Bakken shale is a formation of oil deposits that can be found in parts of Montana, North Dakota, and parts of Saskatchewan which is located in Canada (“What is Fracking”). Barnett shale contains large amounts of natural gas, and sometimes oil and can be found in North Texas (“What is

Shale is found in many colors but those that are very dark or black contain oil and gas. Conventional drillers look for pools of oil and gas above shale rock. “The oil and natural gas migrated out of the shale and upwards through the sediment mass because of their low density. The oil and gas were often trapped within the pore spaces of an overlying rock unit such as sandstone. These types of oil and gas deposits are known as "conventional reservoirs" because the fluids can easily flow through the pores of the rock and into the extraction well”. (Geology.com King) Conventional drilling into shale has declined because those conventional supplies are disappearing and drilling companies have known this for quite some time. They also know that more oil and gas can be extracted. Geology.com’s Hobart King provides this insight. “Although drilling can extract large amounts of oil and natural gas from the reservoir rock, much of it remains trapped within the shale. This oil and gas is very difficult to remove because it is trapped within tiny pore spaces or adsorbed onto clay mineral particles that make-up the shale. In the late 1990s natural gas drilling companies developed new methods for liberating oil and natural gas that is trapped within the tiny pore spaces of shale. This discovery was significant because it unlocked some of the largest natural gas deposits in the world” (King Geology.com). The site goes on to provide this outlook for fracking oil

Hydraulic Fracturing is a process where high-pressure fracking fluids are forced into rich shale to extract natural resources. These fracking fluids are a mixture of proppants and “chemical additives such as surfactants, biocides, fiction reducers and other compounds meant to help in the process of freeing the trapped gas”. In addition, the million gallons of water injected along with the fracking fluids return as flowback water and this produced water have the “potential to mix with nearby aquifers and surface water”. As a result, there is a considerable amount of public concern about water contamination due to this process of hydrofracking (Thurman, Ferrer, Biotevogel & Borch, 2014).

The Marcellus Shale rock formation harbors the largest natural gas reserve that runs from New York to Tennessee. (Federman 2010 p.35) The only way to extract the natural gas is to use the process of hydrofracking. The process of hydrofracking uses a mixture of water, sand and chemicals to drill and fracture the Marcellus Shale to extract the natural gas. Clean water is used from local aquifers to produce the water mixture called “slurry” which is made up of 99% clean water (Rush 2010 p.28). The slurry additives are described in the journal article “In the Wake of the Shale Revolution: A Primer on Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Chemical Disclosure” as, 3

The water mixture used to break the shale rock contains sand as well as over 600 different chemicals. The amount of water needed just for one gas well to take place is over eight million gallons. Not only do these natural gas wells use up so much water, the methane gas and chemicals in the water contaminate nearby groundwater, causing the people who drink it to become very ill and suffer serious mental and physical injuries. Most of these companies who are in the business of drilling gas wells do not show what really goes on behind the scenes. The leftover fracturing fluid, which are retrieved after the fracking, is only half of what first went down the well. Not only is this a problem because the chemicals that are left sink further down into the ground but they are also not biodegradable, which could go on to contaminate more

Unlike traditional oil or gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing uses a combination of chemically treated water and salt to break shale rock; this releases oil or gas that would not be accessible with traditional drilling methods. The oil or gas is then displaced by the water and salt and eventually collected

Hydraulic fracturing is a process of collecting natural gas by pressurizing shale beds. Fracking consists of two components: a drill and fracturing fluids [4]. Well shafts are drilled into a bed of shale less than two thousand feet deep to form a horizontal fracture because less force is required to make the rock strata buckle perpendicularly to the drill [2]. After the primary shaft has been drilled, cement is poured into the surrounding area to keep the fracturing fluids from backtracking up the shaft [2]. Once the drill is placed into the pay zone, where the reservoir of oil is located, fracturing fluids are forced into the surrounding

Before starting the process of fracking the drilling site must be suitable. The site must be four to six acres, cleared from large equipment, and have plastic lines placed for drilling waste . In addition, their must be a water impoundment with about 4 million gallons of water that is collected and stored in order to be pumped into the well. This water is transferred by tanks, trucks, or plastic-lined ponds . Hydraulic fracturing processes begins by drilling a vertical well. The drilling goes through aquifers and dozens of geological layers before it reaches desired location of shale rocked believed to contain natural gas. The drill begins drilling horizontally and a production casing is then inserted into the borehole which is surrounded by cement to case it. Next, a perforating gun is fired to make the shale rock more penetrable. A mixture of water, sand, and various undisclosed chemicals are then pumped in at high pressure in order to fracture/break the shale for the gas to escape. After the fissures in the shale rock occur the natural gas is released through the fissures and is taken up the well to the surface. Last, the water byproduct, also referred to as flow back water or produced water is released and travels back to the surface. The gas that is collected is then processed, refined, and shipped to distributors

Hydraulic fracturing also known as fracking is a process used to release natural gasses from the shale rocks. Shale rock is a type of that is found underneath the earth’s surface. It consists of mud, clay, and other minerals. In order to release these gasses companies must drill up to 10,000 feet into the ground, where high-powered fracking fluid or water mixed with sand and chemicals are put into a metal pipe that is put into place to ensure the stability of the hole that is being drilled. “There are approximately 40,000 gallons of chemicals used per fracturing. There are 600 chemicals used in the fracking fluid, some of which are lead, uranium, mercury,…” On average it takes anywhere from one to eight million gallons of water to complete

Oil and gas are found in little pockets in the shale by fracturing theses pockets it causes the hydrocarbons to be released, Hence the name fracking. To keep open and widen cracks, sand and chemical treated water is pumped into the shale. A

* Most of unconventional gas, such as shale and tight sand, is too deep in the ground to have the fluid reach aquifer.

For diffusion and Gas Exchange to occur here they have to have a large surface area dependent on the size of the

While vertical wells do yield gas, they are mainly used as a base to connect several horizontal wells, which is where the money lies in the industry. After drilling, about “2 million to 10 million gallons of water [is used] to extract the gas” (Marsa 3-4). However, high pressured water alone will not break away the shale rock, therefore sand is added to enable further fracturing. The controversial issue fueling the debate is the third substances added to the water which allow the natural gas to escape for collection. “A cocktail of friction-reducing lubricants [are used] to make the water slick enough to slide through the pipes swiftly” (Marsa 4). A geochemist by the name of Tracy Bank conducted a study at SUNY Buffalo which concluded that the lubricant contained an abundance of toxic metals, “including uranium, barium, chromium, zinc and arsenic” (Marsa 2). This is just a short list of the negative compounds used in fracking. It is likely that the public will never get the full story as to the composition of the lubricants, as major fracking companies refuse to release that information, “claiming that doing so would reveal trade secrets” (Rahman 1). So where do these contaminants end up? After reaching the surface, the waste is emptied into tanks for storage. However, sometimes ponds are also used to hold the pollutants, therefore releasing the harmful toxins into runoffs. Once the gas has

Because water is causing damaging of wellbore in many formations, Oil-based fluids, or hydrocarbons, are used in wells where the formations are sensitive to water. I also learned another type of fracturing fluid, which is the Acid-based fluid. These fluids are used mainly in acid fracturing. These fluids are dangerous and hazardous to handle and requires special