Environmental Justice: Where are the Fracking Sites?

This paper looks at the variables that determine the location of hydraulic fracturing wells. Using cross-sectional data on Texas counties, we test whether county income level and the percentage of the population that is minority are significant indicators of well location. This study mirrors other studies that focus on the location of undesirable land uses such as landfills. Our study finds that income level and the size of the minority population are not statistically significant indicators of hydraulic fracturing well location

DEVELOPMENT OF MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR HYDRAULIC FRACTURING DESIGN

Hydraulic fracturing has been proposed as one of the stimulation technique to economically increase oil/gas production. The design of hydraulic fracturing must take into account various parameters, considerations and complicated calculations. Therefore the project entitled “Development of the Mathematical Model for Hydraulic Fracturing Design” has been proposed. The objective of this project was to develop a mathematical model that could determine the calculation of important parameters involved in the design of hydraulic fracturing and to run several case studies to verify and validate the mathematical model. Mathematical model for hydraulic fracturing design was developed using Microsoft Excel Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). In this report, literature review was done which covers the theory and general overview of hydraulic fracturing; the history of hydraulic fracturing, process of hydraulic fracturing as well as hydraulic fracturing design parameters. Research was also done on hydraulic fracturing calculations and equations involve in its design. Project methodology and activities have been developed and the milestones for this project have been planned for Final Year Project 1 and Final Year Project 2. The Gantt Chart and key milestones for FYP I and FYP II were attached in the report in order to make sure that the project run smoothly according to its plan and schedule. Mathematical model for hydraulic fracturing design was completely developed. Case studies were conducted to verify and validate the mathematical model. Mathematical model verifications for hydraulic fracturing design have established a range of 0 to 2.6% of percentage differences between the calculated values in the model and manual hand calculation while mathematical model validation have established a range of 0 to 17% of percentage differences between the calculated values and the field data values

Recent Developments in Multiscale and Multiphase Modelling of the Hydraulic Fracturing Process

Recently hydraulic fracturing of rocks has received much attention not only for its economic importance but also for its potential environmental impact. The hydraulically fracturing technique has been widely used in the oil (EOR) and gas (EGR) industries, especially in the USA, to extract more oil/gas through the deep rock formations. Also there have been increasing interests in utilising the hydraulic fracturing technique in geological storage of CO2 in recent years. In all cases, the design and implementation of the hydraulic fracturing process play a central role, highlighting the significance of research and development of this technique. However, the uncertainty behind the fracking mechanism has triggered public debates regarding the possible effect of this technique on human health and the environment. This has presented new challenges in the study of the hydraulic fracturing process. This paper describes the hydraulic fracturing mechanism and provides an overview of past and recent developments of the research performed towards better understandings of the hydraulic fracturing and its potential impacts, with particular emphasis on the development of modelling techniques and their implementation on the hydraulic fracturing

A Review of Hydraulic Fracturing Simulation

Along with horizontal drilling techniques, multi-stage hydraulic fracturing has improved shale gas production significantly in past decades. In order to understand the mechanism of hydraulic fracturing and improve treatment designs, it is critical to conduct modelling to predict stimulated fractures. In this paper, related physical processes in hydraulic fracturing are firstly discussed and their effects on hydraulic fracturing processes are analysed. Then historical and state of the art numerical models for hydraulic fracturing are reviewed, to highlight the pros and cons of different numerical methods. Next, commercially available software for hydraulic fracturing design are discussed and key features are summarised. Finally, we draw conclusions from the previous discussions in relation to physics, method and applications and provide recommendations for further research

Recycling wastewater for hydraulic fracturing by use of nanofiltration membranes

Hydraulic fracturing creates large volumes of produced water, contaminated with organics, suspended solids, and dissolved minerals. This water must either be disposed of in injection wells or treated for reuse. One option is to use a combination of ultrafiltration and nanofiltration to treat this water and reuse it in future hydraulic fracturing wells. The object of this study was to test and characterize commercial nanofiltration membranes. The work done for this project will lead to future work in modifying membranes to improve the rejection of desired components

Recent comprehensive review for extended finite element method (XFEM) based on hydraulic fracturing models for unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs

Hydraulic fracturing has been around for several decades since 1860s. It is one of the methods used to recover unconventional gas reservoirs. Hydraulic fracturing design is a challenging task due to the reservoir heterogeneity, complicated geological setting and in situ stress field. Hence, there are plenty of fracture modelling available to simulate the fracture initiation and propagation. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review on hydraulic fracturing modelling based on current hydraulic fracturing literature. Fundamental theory of hydraulic fracturing modelling is elaborated. Effort is made to cover the analytical and numerical modelling, while focusing on eXtended Finite Element Modelling (XFEM)

Utilizing Home Rule: The Case for Restricting Hydraulic Fracturing at the Local Level

30 pagesThe surge of hydraulic fracturing in the United States has spawned concern over public health risks associated with the practice. Some states, such as New York, have ultimately banned hydraulic fracturing citing significant environmental and public health hazards. Nationally, debate over regulation of hydraulic fracturing has taken center stage

Hydraulic Fracturing: Yay or Nay?

The Texas Orato

Energy analysis of hydraulic fracturing

In this paper, numerical simulations of circular boreholes under internal hydraulic pressure are carried out to investigate the energy transferred to the surrounding rock and the breakdown pressure. The simulations are conducted by using a micromechanical continuum damage model proposed by Golshani et al. (2006). The simulation results suggest that the borehole breakdown pressure and the energy transferred to the surrounding rock are dependent on the mechanical properties of the rock and borehole size. Although the energy transferred to the surrounding rock increases with increasing borehole size, the borehole breakdown pressure decreases

The Pressure Relief and Permeability Increase Mechanism of Crossing-Layers Directional Hydraulic Fracturing and Its Application

AbstractIn order to reduce roof-floor blind area of hydrofracture in underground mines, expand influenced range of fracturing, improve the effect of hydrofracture, a pressure relief and permeability increase model of hydraulic fracturing was built on the basis of analysing the mechanism of crack initiation and the characteristics of fracture development. After discussing the mechanism of directional hydraulic fracturing and carrying out related numerical simulation, a directional hydraulic fracturing technique was proposed. The coal fracture development distribution rule in the process of directional hydraulic fracturing was analysed, and the directional hydraulic fracturing technique was applied in the F15-31010 mining workface of The Twelfth Coal of Pingdingshan Coal Mining Group. The results show that single-drill hole fracturing effective radius rise to 6m under the pressure of 27Mpa, which is 3-5 times more than before, and the average concentration of single-drill hole gas drainage promote to 87.5%, average flow up 55.6% than no-directional hydraulic fracturing. All these suggest that the technology obtains remarkable effect, and has a high application value