Startup Aims To Advance Rocket Fuel Technology for Fracturing.
RocketFrac Services Ltd. is a highly-driven Canadian company focused on the development of innovative well stimulation tools. RocketFrac has designed a break-through fracing technology allowing for economically efficient and environmentally friendly oil and gas recovery without the need for water or proppant.
The PSI-CLONE tool, which holds the propellant, is reusable. Once the propellant has burned out completely, the tool can be reloaded with another block of fuel. The company states that the system requires a single coiled tubing unit, as opposed to the multiple pumper trucks and water tanks used for hydraulic fracturing, and requires three to five onsite personnel.
Superior Technology?
The PSI-CLONE™ tool will be fully functional in both vertical and horizontal well applications and will be a powerful enhancement of existing technology.
RocketFrac employs a state-of-the-art propellant-based fracturing process that uses a uniquely formulated solid rocket fuel to generate high-pressure gases for fracturing rock formations. Our process features several important advancements over previous gas fracturing applications. By working directly with manufacturers to develop our propellant, RocketFrac will precisely tailor pressures to each well and formation to ensure successful fracturing.
Because it does not use any liquid beyond the drilling fluid on-site, Freeman said PSI-CLONE would eliminate the need for facilities and vehicles for water treatment and disposal. She said solid rocket propellant is stable, safe to handle, and easier to transport than flowback water. With no
size or lateral restrictions in borehole length, the tool would be small enough to be transported in a single truck, and because it does not require water or proppant, the system does not require much time for assembly.
It is absolutely benign. Freeman said. As a solid, if you drop it, you can just pick it up. I’ve handled it with my bare hands. It is very, very safe.”RocketFrac is still in the early stages of development. The company incorporated in February and is currently looking to test both the sealing mechanism and the solid rocket fuel to see how it performs in different formations. It is currently working with a rocket fuel manufacturer to design and supply a formulation customized for the petroleum industry. Freeman said the company is looking to use PSI-CLONE in test wells by January or February 2018.
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