I'm doing my proposal on Hydraulic Fracturing, or commonly known as "fracking" in the chemical engineering world. So I thought I would give everyone a little in sight on what fracking really is.
Fracking is the process of extracting natural gases from the underground world. Geo-physicists work with chemical engineers to do this. Basically, what happens is is that they drill underground through these rock layers. Underneath these rock layers are natural gas deposits. The drilling creates underground wells which are then filled with chemicals, sand, and other materials. These materials. sometimes called slurry, pushes up the natural gas and bada-boom, bada-bing, ya got natural gas.
Fracking is done right here in the USA and right here in Ohio! It creates jobs for chemical engineers and geo-physicists and other skilled workers. It can even make other oils less expensive. It's using local petroleum and is done right here in America. And when I say America, I mean America, not north or south of it!
It is not perfect though, there are issues with ground water, but with more laboratory testing, kinks can be worked out, and all water that is being used is being recycled via a water treatment plant.
picture source:
http://fracfocus.org/hydraulic-fracturing-process
That is actually pretty cool. I never really knew how we got natural gases or really asked or cared to search about it but reading this kind of makes me want to learn more about it. I knew that natural gases came from the Earth and were a pretty good thing to have since its renewal and what not but I never knew how it worked! I cannot say I would ever want to do this for a job though because frankly, that sounds like a lot of work. I can only imagine the types of drills they use to be able to drill through all these rock layers just to get underneath them. And I can only imagine the amount of money that really goes into it or the amount of money these people get paid! I feel like it should be a lot. I just hope that the chemicals that are going into these wells is not harmful to anything because that would not be very good. But, I am sure that these physicists and chemical engineers have went through a lot of schooling and know what they are doing but then again there are people that know what they are doing and still do things that harm the Earth. I mean do not get me wrong I am not one of those people that are all like save the Earth! Global Warming! But I still think we should take care of it to an extent. And on that subject I think that the things they want us to do to save the Earth should be a little cheaper because no matter how good it is a lot of people still won’t pay the price if they can get something cheaper that does the same thing. Anyway, good luck on your paper! It is really a interesting thing to write about.
ReplyDeleteI actually had some insight on this. I went to Buckeye Girls State last year, and I got a spot in the House of Representatives. When I was in the house I was elected the chairman of the natural resoursess and environmental protection group, and my group talked about this. We decided to support this bill on it, and sadly it did not pass. I do not feel like it did because it was not known by many people. The girl that talked more indepth about this issue could not explain it to her full ability. Some most of the girls did not understand it, or did not even know it was a problem. We tried to keep it from failing, but it was hard with some many against it do to the lack of information. I really wish that it would have happened though because it would have made a great impact. I also remember one girl not wanting it because she said it did harm things to the Earth. I am not sure because it is not something I know really well. I just want something that is better than we have now. I also remember her being so against it because it is ruining our water system. It just seems to have itss ups and downs, but I mean what really does not have that. I really wanted the bill to pass, but it was really just to the lack of information, but I bet your paper would have really helped. I think this is a great and interesting topic to write about!
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