MIT study calls for international increase in shale gas research
13 June 2011 | By Stephen Harris
Research into tapping shale gas should besubstantially increased because of its potential role in cutting carbondioxide emissions, a new report says.
Natural gas provides a ‘cost-effective bridge to a low-carbonfuture’ and controversial techniques for extracting it from rock bedshave dramatically increased supplies, according to research from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The report calls forthe US government to increase the scope and scale of research into shalegas drilling and encourage its development around the world,particularly in Europe and China, despite environmental concerns aboutits impact on water supplies.
Shale drilling is increasing rapidly in the US, whereestimated unconventional gas sources almost double the amount ofrecoverable gas in the country to 2150 trillion cubic feet. The first UKdrilling operation began earlier this year in Lancashire.
‘In theUS, a combination of demand reduction and displacement of coal-firedpower by gas-fired generation is the lowest cost way to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 50 per cent,’ said the study from the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI).
‘For more stringent CO2emissions reductions, further de-carbonization of the energy sectorwill be required; but natural gasprovides a cost-effective bridge tosuch a low-carbon future.’
Gas is also likely to play a major roleas a backup energy source to counter the intermittency of renewablesources such as wind, and could become more widely used as a transportfuel, the report said.
Shale gas is usually extracted usinghydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’, a process that has attractedcriticism and legal action as it involves the pumping of chemicals intothe ground, while reports have emerged of gas entering nearby drinkingwater supplies.
The study found the environmental impacts of shalewere ‘challenging but manageable’, and that some cases of the gasentering freshwater tables were ‘most likely the result of substandardwell-completion practices by a few operators’.
Responding to a question from The Engineerat a recent conference, MIT’s Chevron Professor from the chemicalengineering department, Robert Armstrong, said the shale gas industryneeded to quickly adopt best practices.
‘The only way gas can getinto drinking water is if you don’t fit the well correctly so followingbest practices in the drilling industry is going to be critical if theindustry is going to be allowed to continue to produce these large shaleresources,’ he said.
‘Proper control and treatment of surfacewater is critical. There’s a lot of water produced from the well and theproducers need to have standard practices put in place to allow captureand treatment of the water before it’s put back into the system.’
Headded that most of the industry expertise in gas drilling was basedaround the Gulf of Mexico and a migration of experience and technologyto the northeast US, where much of the shale drilling takes place, wasneeded.
Mining company Cuadrilla Resources last week suspended itsUK drilling operation after earth tremors were felt in nearbyBlackpool.
But the Energy and Climate Change Committee of MPsrecently concluded that fracking posed no direct risk to water suppliersprovided the drilling well was constructed properly.
