Frac Tanks and Fracking
Fracking is a slang term for hydraulic fracturing, a process commonly used to extract natural gas from layers of rock near the Earth’s surface. It can also be used to speed up the flow of petroleum or water from underground wells. Modern fracking is a young business, only invented in 1998 but the key concepts date back to the 1940s. The first attempt to extract natural gas from limestone involved pumping 1000 gallons of gasoline and sand into the hard rock and was not very successful.
The simple explanation of the process of hydraulic fracturing is that liquid is pushed through a hose into the ground with such force that it creatures fractures in the weak points between and within layers of rock. A wellbore is created with a drill and is used to reach the layer of limestone, bedrock, shale or coal that needs to be fractured. The rock layer chosen can be from 5,000 to 20,000 feet below ground level and the fracture can extend horizontally for miles. (Thus fracking being referred to at times as horizontal fracturing.) A frac tank is the vestibule that is used to hold the water and proppant while it is being pumped into the well and again when it is being extracted.
After the fracture is created, the next challenge is keeping the vein open. If left alone, the fracture would simply collapse again with the weight of the ground above, that is why the frac team must pump sand, ceramic or a similar synthetic substance through the opening. With the fracture created and fortified, the natural gas or petroleum that has been trapped under many layers of sedimentary rock has an avenue to flow to the surface and can be easily extracted.
Recently, there have been concerns about hydraulic fracturing’s impact on the environment. Activists say that the chemicals used in the fracking process are corrupting reservoirs of ground water and the release of natural gas that may escape during the process can have a negative effect on air quality. While there are plenty of nay sayers, the fracking industry is a very lucrative industry that is growing rapidly with little indication of slowing down anytime soon.