Such rocks make it possible for specialists to figure out what exactly happens with fluids and oil in the underground

Sep 29, 2014 18:03 GMT  ·  By

There's a lot of talk about 3D printers these days, and it's not just because mastering this technology makes one seem really cool. It's because 3D printing really does have the potential to help us reach a better understanding of the world we live in, and even transform it.

In fact, researcher Franek Hasiuk with the Iowa State University in the city of Ames in the US and colleagues are now using 3D printing to shed new light on what fracking is all about.

More precisely, these brainiacs are using 3D printed rock models, complete with complex pore networks, to figure out how fluids involved in the fracking process and oil behave in the underground.

The way Franek Hasiuk sees things, this series of experiments is bound to make fracking a wee safer by allowing oil and gas giants looking to exploit underground reservoirs to predict how rocks will behave when toyed with.

Crash course in fracking

For those unaware, fracking, otherwise known as hydraulic fracturing, boils down to injecting massive amounts of pressurized liquid in the underground in order to access oil and gas reserves we humans would otherwise be unable to exploit.

This pressurized liquid that oil and gas companies use to access reserves deep in the ground is basically a mixture of water, sand and various chemical compounds. When in the ground, fracking fluid causes rocks to crack, thus permitting easy access to oil and gas.

The trouble with hydraulic fracturing

Because it involves toying with the stability of the underground, fracking has been argued to constitute a threat to water sources, which some say can be polluted by the liquid used to carry out such operations.

What's more, folks who oppose this practice say that, by causing cracks in the rocks in the underground, hydraulic fracturing makes regions more vulnerable to potentially devastating earthquakes.

Lastly, fracking opponents argue that, since fracking operations go through a lot of water in a fairly limited time frame, this practice need be listed as a threat to our planet's fresh water resources which, by the way, aren't as vast as many think them to be.

Can 3D printing make fracking less dangerous?

According to Franek Hasiuk, it most certainly can. These researchers say that, thanks to the rock models they create using 3D printing, oil and gas companies are bound to have an easier time figuring out how digging a fracking well will affect one region or another.

“3D printing lets geology have lab rats. You can create identical copies of rocks with the same pore network and perform the same experiment several times. That takes some of the variables out and gives you meaningful results,” the University of Iowa scientist said in a statement, as cited by Live Science.

“This [research] would add to the toolbox to better understand how rocks will behave in different scenarios. If that has the collateral benefit of meaning we need to drill fewer wells or we can drill more efficiently, then positive impacts could occur,” he added.

Presently, Franek Hasiuk and colleagues are busy creating 3D printed replicas of a type of rock known as Fontainebleau Sandstone, which is characterized by a large, uniform grain size. However, they expected that they will soon be able to move to recreating rocks that are somewhat more complex structurally-wise.