Senthil Kumar had a great question for us regarding our post about Hydraulic Fracturing!
Senthil Kumar 5 hours ago
can anybody say why a small amount of additives is mixed in fracture fluids.
While the specific chemicals used varies by company and is often dictated by the condition of the well being drilled, there are general types of chemicals used. Below is a chart (original can be found on FracFocus) that explains several types of chemicals, the reason for usage, and what the consequences could be if they are not used.
An additional source of information regarding hydraulic fracturing and the chemicals used in fracking fluids can be found at geology.com. The specific page regarding fracking fluids is here. This site lists several more chemicals that may be used as additives, in addition to the 6 listed above.
FracFocus also provides a "find a well" service; visitors enter their state and county, and the site lists hydraulic fracturing wells in that county (if there are any). Visitors can go down the list of counties to locate wells that are in neighboring areas. Once a visitor finds well locations, they can pick a particular well and view a PDF file of what chemicals were added to the fracking fluids for that particular well.
How safe do you think the chemical additives in fracking fluids are? Since not all of the fluid can be removed from the wells (see our original hydraulic fracturing post for that information), do you think there is a potential for drinking water to be contaminated? Please leave a comment with any thoughts or questions! This is certainly an important topic in our world today.
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