Natural Gas Scare

[VectorM]

So on Facebook, a bunch of people are protesting the upcoming construction of pipes for extraction of natural gas, here in Bulgaria.

Long story short, their posts are filled with what looks like typical environmentalist propaganda - "chemicals, carcinogenic, the children" etc.

I also stumbled on this lovely video when I did some googling:

[yt]U01EK76Sy4A&feature=player_embedded[/yt]Does anyone know if any useful publication I can read on the subject?

[Anpanman]

So on Facebook, a bunch of people are protesting the upcoming construction of pipes for extraction of natural gas, here in Bulgaria.

Long story short, their posts are filled with what looks like typical environmentalist propaganda - "chemicals, carcinogenic, the children" etc.

I also stumbled on this lovely video when I did some googling:

[yt]U01EK76Sy4A&feature=player_embedded[/yt]Does anyone know if any useful publication I can read on the subject?

Why would you not want to breath fire?

typical environmentalist propaganda - "chemicals, carcinogenic, the children" etc.

I agree with a part of this sentiment however. There should not be any children in my tap water.

[Ibrahim90]

I think my geology education might come in handy here:

while I don't have any papers on this I'm afraid, so I cannot be definitive, I do know accidents are possible, if care is not taken in drilling the pipes so as to not contaminate groundwater or nearby surface water. I don't know much about the Geology of Bulgaria, so I cannot comment if it would be a bad idea to drill for natural gas there. This is largely because methane in the natural gas will react with the water to create methanol. that's possibly what the guy lit up (so yes, it is probably genuine). and in case you want to know, that shit is very toxic, and can leave you blind, if not dead: the Germans put it in alcohol to serve to occupying soviet soldiers as a form of resistance.

if you want, I can go next week and drop by one of my professor's office. he should know more

here's a wikipedia article on methanol, for reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol#Production


EDIT: I can talk about Fracking though in a definitive way, and can largely say most are full of shit:

first off, all one (most people) can actually say about fracking material is that they are surfactants (they reduce water's surface tension-Soap is an everyday example*)-period. the oil companies do not say what are in the surfactants (trade secret), though I doubt Arsenic or heavy metals are any of them. in fact, the Arsenic is more likely to come from the groundwater itself than the fracking material. I'm not so sure about carcenogens, though the companies, in a quest to avoid getting sued, likely try not to get that. (turns out some of the materials can be nasty, though the professor did not elaborate. but the heavy metals thing is still untrue).

of course, people still talk smack, precisely because the companies feel the need to keep the ingredients a secret to gain an edge, so the hippies (for some reason) assume that it must be bad shit.

*this is to make the extraction easier. you insert it IIRC after you have fractured the rock layer from the water pumped in.

[VectorM]

while I don't have any papers on this I'm afraid, so I cannot be definitive, I do know accidents are possible, if care is not taken in drilling the pipes so as to not contaminate groundwater or nearby surface water. I don't know much about the Geology of Bulgaria, so I cannot comment if it would be a bad idea to drill for natural gas there. This is largely because methane in the natural gas will react with the water to create methanol. that's possibly what the guy lit up (so yes, it is probably genuine). and in case you want to know, that shit is very toxic, and can leave you blind, if not dead: the Germans put it in alcohol to serve to occupying soviet soldiers as a form of resistance.

if you want, I can go next week and drop by one of my professor's office. he should know more

If you could really do that, I would greatly appreciate it 

Also, turns out it's about a specific type of natural gas, Shale gas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_gas

[Ibrahim90]

If you could really do that, I would greatly appreciate it 

Also, turns out it's about a specific type of natural gas, Shale gas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_gas

true. usually black shale, since it is organic rich (it's also where you find petroleum-as a source rock, of which it is the #1 type). the organic matter produces large loads of methane, which is the problem here..

And hopefully, you can get an answer no later than Friday (I'm in Texas still-he's at Fort Collins, Colorado). I'll be returning in a few days as dorms open up.

EDIT: now that I opened the link, I do see that Bulgaria has natural gas, though the amount and concentration is unknown (see the inset global map). the next question is: do the Bulgarians rely on groundwater or some other source? and are either tied to deposits near or are the methane-rich natural gas layer?

[Ibrahim90]

well, I've arrived back home to Colorado, and went to see him he's not here.

I might find him walking around.

EDIT: he's on sabbatical.

[Ibrahim90]

ok, thankfully, the professor showed up to do some book writing, who knows this. here is (paraphrased) what he said:

yes, you can contaminate water, and yes it is dangerous and it does happen. However: such an occurrence is (comparatively) rare. In short, to sum it up, the danger is real enough, they aren't exaggerating that, but environmentalists are exaggerating its frequency. 

and he largely agrees on the surfactants, though he said that they can and do contain some harmful chemicals (he did not elaborate, though he is an insider, so he should know-I stand corrected in part*), and went on to say that you have to ideally keep them in the fracked layer, so they don't seep out. he does find the arsenic allegation to be inaccurate: he says it's more likely to come from the parent rocks. I will correct myself accordingly.

*though to be fair, that was from a discussion in my geochemistry class. he's an economic geologist btw.