Interlumen Camera

Steam-Frack is a revolutionary fracking technology that replaces traditional high-pressure pumps with controlled steam explosions to fracture rock formations. This approach reduces costs, improves efficiency, and enhances safety, making fracking faster and more economically viable.

Steam-Frack works by using a high-energy electric spark to trigger an instantaneous steam explosion within a horizontal borehole. Here’s how it unfolds:

1. Placement of Spark Initiator: A specially designed spark initiator, made from high-temperature conductive materials, is placed in the borehole filled with fracking fluid (water and sand).
2. Electric Charge Discharge: A powerful electric charge (100,000+ joules) is sent to the spark initiator, creating a high-temperature spark.
3. Steam Explosion: The spark heats the surrounding water near the initiator to extreme temperatures, converting it into live steam at up to 17,000 PSI. This steam expands rapidly, creating an instantaneous hydraulic impulse.
4. Fracturing the Rock: The pressure from this steam explosion forces the water and sand into the rock formations, causing the small fractures to expand and spread open. The sand helps hold the fractures open, allowing oil or gas to flow from the formation into the well.
5. Repetition: The process can be repeated quickly, as the capacitors used to store and release the energy can be recharged, enabling multiple steam explosions in rapid succession.

This method avoids the need for high-pressure pumps, significantly cutting costs and reducing safety risks.

• Traditional Fracking: Uses mechanical hydraulic pumps to build up pressure gradually, often reaching 8,000–15,000 PSI. This process can be slow, with the pumps needing time to generate the necessary pressure.
• Steam-Frack: Uses instantaneous steam explosions that generate 17,000 PSI or higher, creating a much more powerful hydraulic impulse in a fraction of a second. This leads to faster and more effective formation fracturing.

• Traditional Fracking: The hydraulic pump process takes time to build up the necessary pressure, leading to lengthy delays between fracturing cycles. Multiple repetitions are needed for effective results.
• Steam-Frack: The process can be repeated quickly because capacitors recharge rapidly, allowing multiple steam explosions in short succession without long delays.

• Traditional Fracking: Requires expensive high-pressure pumps, specialized equipment, and high fuel consumption, making the overall process costly. There are also ongoing operational expenses related to the pumps and maintenance.
• Steam-Frack: Uses commercially available generators and capacitors for energy storage, significantly reducing the need for expensive, high-maintenance pump trucks. This results in lower operational costs and reduced fuel consumption.

• Traditional Fracking: Involves high-pressure pumps and hoses, which can be hazardous, leading to risks of equipment failure, wellbore collapse, and accidents due to pressure spikes.
• Steam-Frack: Eliminates high-pressure pumps, hoses, and tubing, reducing the risk of dangerous failures. It also avoids creating unpredictable high-pressure buildup in the wellbore, offering a safer method with fewer risks.

• Traditional Fracking: Uses significant amounts of water and chemicals, and the large, noisy equipment can create environmental concerns, including risks of contamination and noise pollution.
• Steam-Frack: While it still uses water (slickwater), the process doesn't require as much and has the potential to be more eco-friendly. It’s quieter (especially if local electricity is used), and it could reduce some environmental risks associated with traditional fracking.

• Traditional Fracking: Effective primarily for larger wells, but the cost and difficulty of fracking smaller or less productive wells often makes these projects economically unfeasible.
• Steam-Frack: The lower cost and faster cycle times make it viable for smaller wells and previously uneconomical formations. It can even make fracking possible in areas where traditional methods are restricted due to concerns over water pollution.

• Cost-Effective: It drastically lowers costs by reducing the need for expensive pump trucks and specialized equipment, making it economically feasible even for smaller wells.
• Faster and More Efficient: It delivers powerful hydraulic pressure instantly, resulting in quicker and more effective fracturing cycles.
• Safer: With no high-pressure pumps, tubing, or hoses, the risks of equipment failure, wellbore collapse, and accidents are minimized.
• Potential for Wider Application: Its efficiency and lower costs make it possible to access previously uneconomical wells, offering more flexibility in well completion.