Plasma Pulse Technology (PPT)

The Fracking technology uses huge amount of water that needed to be transported to the fracking site, at significant cost.  Further, several chemicals are used in fracking which are supposed to be carcinogenic. Contamination of the groundwater is a significant carbon cost. The key problems of extracting shale gas are enumerated below:

• Expensive technique of fracturing and horizontal drilling technology
• Large scale use of water and chemicals
• Contamination of ground water aquifers
• Risk of earthquakes
• Coincide of many common areas under shale gas and natural gas reserves producing problems in contemporary extraction of shale gas and natural gas.
• Under mismanagement, the hydraulic fracturing fluid can be released by spills, leaks or various other exposure pathways polluting the surroundings.
• Shale gas transportation and storage is a difficult process.

Plasma Pulse Technology (PPT)

Plasma Pulse is a relatively new technique introduced to the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) industry in the United States.  It is also being cited the main reason behind next shale gas boom in United States.  It is already being used in production in Russia, Eastern Europe, and China. It was first introduced to the U.S. industry in 2013. The Plasma Pulse Technology (PPT) is developed to overcome the disadvantages of presently used fracking technology to recover gas and oil from shale rock.

Plasma Pulse Technology  is one of the so called Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technologies. It allows to extract up to 90% of the original oil / gas in reservoir after the standard production methods fail to extract more oil or gas.  The PPT was invented at St. Petersburg State Mining University in Russia.

Under this technology, a series of impulse waves are used to enhance the permeability of rocks for a period such as one year. It has been found that one treatment of Plasma Waves would keep the enhanced permeability for around one year and such one treatment would result in three times increment in gas production.

Since Plasma-Pulse Technology works without any chemicals, it is deemed to be environmentally friendly. The treatment is created to clear the well drainage area of sedimentation clogging at the perforation zone and increase the permeability of the reservoir at the same time. This technology reminds us of the many science fiction movies in which they suggested to use this technology with futuristic weapons.

Advantages of Plasma Pulse Technology

• It does not use any chemicals.
• It is an easy-to-deploy technology that uses vibrations, or electrically generated plasma impulses to reduce viscosity, increase permeability and improve flow of oil and gas to the surface for extraction.
• It is designed toimprove production costs effectively and without resorting to acidization, hydro-fracking or other environmentally harmful processes.
• With Plasma Pulse, the well stimulation process usually only requires a few hours to complete using a one-man crew and a single wireline truck.Other techniques like fracking can often take days to complete.
• Once the Plasma Pulse Treatment has been completed, the well can go back into production immediately.

How it works

Instead of injecting high pressure fluid into a well to create small fractures to aid during the oil recovery process, the Plasma Pulse Treatment produces a high energy plasma arc that generates a tremendous amount of heat for a fraction of a second and the subsequent hydraulic impulse wave created removes any clogged sedimentation from the perforation zone, i.e. scale, fines, drilling mud, etc. The series of impulse waves/vibrations also penetrate deep into the reservoir causing nano-fractures in the matrix and increases the permeability. Oil can then flow more easily from the reservoir into the well and be pumped to the surface. The end result is an increase in sustained production which can last for as long as a year.