Intralipid and Fracking

Andre Willers

30 Jan 2013

Synopsis :

We use specific soybean lipids in the fracking liquid to do the cracking of gas to liquid fuel safely underground .

Discussion :

1.Supply oxygen for the partial oxygenization under pressure .

See Appendix II and III .

A simple , cheap flow process that involves soybean oil and ultrasound . The centrifugal effect can be supplied by Hilch-tubes .

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube . This can be done at any point in the pumping system .

The gas content of the microbubbles can be precisely adjusted to include nano-particles of the required catalysts for the gas-to liquid fuel process .

See appendix II

 

2. This leaves a lot of empty micro-bubbles of soybean oil floating about , that absorbs clean water leaving the crud , which crud is our liquid fuel .

See Appendix I .

 

3. We take out the fuel (hopefully floating on top) and leave a fairly clean water aquifer .

 

4. Surprise ! Surprise !

Using this system , we can frack hopelessly saline polluted systems like the MacKenzie basin in Australia and leave a clean water aquifer .

Especially if there are gas-shales under the the MacKenzie basin . Which seems likely . Make a whopping profit .

 

5.Can it be done fairly shallowly ?

I am thinking of the major South African problem of acid-mine water .

Argh!

Problem ? What Problem ?

It is an enormous opportunity .

All those valuable minerals have been exposed , dissolved by the acids and brought to the surface at NO COST .

This is low cost mining .

All you have to do is concentrate using techniques like above , or many others like semi-permeable membranes , etc .

6. Expect huge Chinese , Japanese , Singapore , European interest .

7. The US and Europe has similar concentrations of dissolved minerals in many places . Expect rare mineral prices to fall .

 

Who said soy-beans were boring ?

 

Andre

 

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Appendix I

Water Purified With Soybean Oil

Filed under: Agricultural Perspectives, Industrial Agriculture, Seed — Leave a comment

December 16, 2012

Some interesting research from MIT in the US has developed a simple process that uses a class of soybean oil to take contaminates out of water.  The research was a side development from a project that was finding ways to preserve human cells in deep freeze. Know as cryopreservation one must be careful to avoid ice crystals from forming and rupturing cells.  In 2008 Anurag Bajpayee ( a MIT PHD candidate)  was inserting a glycol (antifreeze) and soybean oil blend into cells which concentrated the glycol.  In 2009 during his PHD qualifying exam an interesting discussion developed into a patent application.

Baipayee's simple process utilizing just soybean oil could be a boon to cities, industries and agricultural operations – all of which create vast amounts of dirty water- by providing ways to clean water that could utilize less energy-intentsive or expensive or both.

Soybean oil is among a small number of oils that seem to serve as so-called directional solvents. That is they dissolve water without dissolving other molecules that are in water such as salts. Soybean oil can absorb water when heated to as little as 40° Celsius, leaving behind contaminant molecules, which are then skimmed away. Simply cooling the mixture allows the cleansed water to flow back out out to be captured. The solvent thus remains undisturbed, ready to clean more water.

Fatty Acid Structure

The key is the carbon backbone of the oil, a fatty acid. Most of it is repels water, but at one end is a molecule, know as a carboxylic acid group, that readily forms a hydrogen bond with water. Some scientists suggest the discovery (among one of the coolest discoveries  in chemistry for a long time) could have been discovered a century ago. Hey that organic chemistry course (with the balls and sticks) in school may have been worth it.

Bajpayee's experiments showed, however, that purifying a single 16 oz cup of water would require enough soybean oil to fill a swimming pool. So he looked for another directional solvent that would be more efficient and settled on decanoic acid which naturally occurs in milk and which bonds more easily to water. This fatty acid could turn salt water from the sea into fresh water yet appears to work best in saltier brines, such as mining waste water or even fracking wells. Fracking water can have 8 times as much salt content as seawater and more than 9 billion liters of contaminated water is produced everyday in the USA.

Encouraged by the results, Bajpayee is already testing decanoic acid with 6 different oil and gas brine's against current technologies such as reverse osmosis, which requires special membranes that can clog and foul easily; distillation, which utilizes tremendous amounts of external energy; and most commonly returning the water into the well or pond.

To make a real impact in oil and gas drilling the costs savings much compete with the cheapest alternative which right now is ponding or returning the water to the source. In the meantime more research will determine if decanoic acid or some other directional solvent could cleanse dirty waste water or desalinate seawater more inexpensively than the current processes.

Source:

Scientific America December 2012

 

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Appendix II

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_to_liquids

"Gas to liquids (GTL) is a refinery process to convert natural gas or other gaseous hydrocarbons into longer-chain hydrocarbons such as gasoline or diesel fuel. Methane-rich gases are converted into liquid synthetic fuels either via direct conversion or via syngas as an intermediate, for example using the Fischer Tropsch or Mobil processes."

 

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Appendix III

Foam That

Restores

Breathing

Injectable oxygen microbubbles

could give asthma and choking

victims precious minutes

Only a few minutesafter someone stops breathing—

whether it is from a piece of meat stuck in the throat,

a severe asthma attack or a lung injury—the brain

starts to shut down. Cardiac arrest and death are

imminent. Emergency responders and hospital workers have one primary recourse: insert a breathing

tube through a patient's mouth. That procedure can

be risky and time-consuming.

A new injectable solution could keep such people

alive for 15 minutes or more, buying crucial time to

get victims to a hospital or to do some surgical gymnastics in an operating room. The solution contains

oxygen microbubbles, which the blood can absorb

within seconds. The bubbles are too small to cause

an air embolism—a gas pocket that stops blood flow,

thus causing a stroke or heart attack.

To create this lifesaving foam, John Kheir, a cardiologist at Boston Children's Hospital, and his colleagues adapted existing medical nanotechnology.

Microparticles with lipid membranes already deliver

drugs, as well as dyes for ultrasound imaging. Kheir's

team propelled phospholipids through an oxygenated

chamber and used sound waves to spur the ingredients to self-assemble into microparticles. The

© 2012 Scientific AmericanDecember 2012, ScientificAmerican.com 37

researchers then used a centrifuge to superconcentrate

them into solution. Each four-micron-wide microbubble

contains pure oxygen, surrounded by a lipid film that is

just a few nanometers thick.

Because the bubbles contain oxygen at a pressure

that is higher than in the bloodstream, the gas diffuses

into red blood cells on contact. Once a bubble is depleted, the shell collapses to a disk that is less than a micron

wide, easily passing through the circulatory system.

In a test, researchers blocked the airways of anesthetized rabbits for 15 minutes. Those injected with the solution were much less likely to go into cardiac arrest or

have other organ damage than those who got saline

solution—despite not taking a single breath.

The approach is "a fairly innovative idea compared to

what we have now," says Raymond Koehler of Johns

Hopkins University, who is not involved in the work,

because most emergency oxygen procedures require the

pulmonary system to function at least at a minimal level.

One drawback is that because the blood absorbs the

oxygen so quickly, a constant infusion is necessary, which

involves a lot of saline to help the foam move smoothly into

the bloodstream. The amount of solution that a patient

would receive after 15 minutes could lead to edema, a fluid

overload that can cause heart failure. Kheir's team is trying

to improve the formulation so that it requires less saline.

Another concern is that without normal respiration,

carbon dioxide builds up in the body, which can be toxic.

As Koehler notes, however, the body can handle a little

excess carbon dioxide better than it can handle a total lack

of oxygen. If the microbubbles prove successful in further

animal (and subsequent human) trials, the solution could

help emergency crews or operating room technicians buy

crucial minutes before they can implement other lifesaving treatments. In those situations, Koehler says, "you

want to have a backup plan." —Katherine Harmon

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