There are not many shortcuts for the proportional configuration of cementing fluid. Facing the complex underground environment in the Shenhu Sea Area, the cementing fluid must ensure the safety of the test production well and the stability after the well is closed in the future. Everything must be based on safety.
for the ultimate goal.
Due to time constraints, after the technical team on the Blue Whale put forward the idea, the Land Research Institute immediately divided into several test teams to conduct various experiments at the same time.
The work of the experimental team is going on intensely, and the people on the Blue Whale are also suffering. No one has an accurate time as to when the trial mining can be officially started. Everything is guessing.
In order to allow everyone to work safely in this "island at sea", many activities are organized on the Blue Whale. The huge size of the Blue Whale occupies favorable conditions. There are not only various competitions in the gym, but also on the deck.
There are also various sports such as tug-of-war and running.
Just when the activities on the Blue Whale were in full swing, a piece of good news immediately came.
After more than a hundred experiments, the optimal proportion of cementing fluid has been determined. Experiments on land and at sea have shown that the cementing fluid is very effective in dealing with the geological conditions of the Shenhu sea area and can be widely used in Shenhu.
Combustible ice mining work in sea areas.
As the research on cementing fluids gradually comes to an end, the Blue Whale has returned to its original position. Although there are almost no traces of this on the vast sea, only the coordinates on the data and more than a thousand
This can be confirmed at meters deep.
The restarted drilling work was once again carried out in an orderly manner. After the previous sampling work experience, both the drilling team and the main control room became more proficient in the maneuverability of the Blue Whale. This was considered an accident.
Let's practice.
When the riser and blowout preventer weighing hundreds of tons gently landed at the planned drilling location, through the submarine video system, you can clearly see a slight puff of smoke rising from the seafloor, which is the sound that has been dormant on the seafloor for hundreds of millions of years.
sediment.
The strong and sharp drill bit quickly opened up this layer of sediment, quickly tore apart the rock layer below, and slowly entered the depths of the seabed, opening up the connection between the depths of the rock layer and the Blue Whale, allowing the flammable ice hidden deep on the seafloor to be revealed to the light.
This is also the most dangerous time in the entire drilling process.
The combustible ice in the Shenhu Sea is formed in the deep sea rock formations of more than a thousand meters and is in a state of low temperature and high pressure. Since mining will cause the ambient temperature to rise, and combustible ice has strong "flammability", the temperature rise will
High temperatures will cause flammable ice to vaporize, transform from a solid state into a flammable gaseous state, and the volume can expand more than a hundred times.
Once this expansion is uncontrolled, combustible ice will develop in the space of underground rock formations, eventually causing the entire geological rock formation to break and collapse, and even cause extremely destructive tsunamis, posing a great threat to the safety of the surrounding sea areas.
In addition, the main component of flammable ice is methane. If it is mined carelessly, methane will leak. Methane is not only a strong greenhouse gas, but also forms a huge flammable and explosive source at the leakage point. It is extremely dangerous and cannot be used.
control.
Humanity's desire for energy has never stopped. When combustible ice was discovered, the huge energy effect immediately attracted a lot of attention, and everyone made great efforts to study the mining methods of combustible ice.
After years of hard work and research, there are currently three traditional mining methods.
One is thermally induced mining, which is to directly heat the underground combustible ice deposits using microwave electromagnetic and other methods, so that the combustible ice hidden underground is heated and decomposed into water and natural gas, and the decomposed natural gas is directly captured and collected.
This method has fast mining speed and can be heated cyclically, but it can only mine local combustible ice layers. If it is fully mined and heated, there will be a risk of expansion and explosion, and it is inefficient and is not suitable for large-scale commercial mining.
The second method is to use chemical reagent injection for mining, injecting brine and other chemical reagents into the combustible ice deposits to change the equilibrium conditions of the combustible ice underground and promote the self-decomposition of the combustible ice. Although this can reduce the initial
Combustible ice mining consumes energy, but it also has huge drawbacks. The chemical reagents are expensive and may cause environmental pollution. This method is basically being phased out.
Currently, the most popular method in the world is the decompression method for mining, and this is the method adopted by the Blue Whale this time.
The pressure reduction method reduces the pressure of the combustible ice ore layer through pumping action, making it lower than the equilibrium pressure of the combustible ice under the temperature conditions of the ore layer, thereby causing the combustible ice to decompose from solid to methane gas.
If the combustible ice deposits are adjacent to conventional natural gas deposits, the pressure of the combustible ice deposits can also be reduced by mining natural gas. As the natural gas continues to decrease, the balance of combustible ice will be continuously destroyed, resulting in flammable ice.
It gradually melts and the generated natural gas is continuously replenished until the entire flammable ice layer is mined.
This method does not require continuous heating like thermally induced mining. It only needs to dig a well on the seabed to achieve the goal. The development cost is relatively low. It is also suitable for large-area mining. It is also the technology with the highest utilization rate at present. However, this technology only has
It is only economical when combustible ice is at the boundary of temperature and pressure equilibrium.
The combustible ice deposits in the Shenhu Sea Area are just suitable for the use of decompression methods, which is one of the reasons why the country has placed its first combustible ice trial mining project here this time.
Although there have been several experiences in mining core samples before, they only occupy at most one-third of the depth of the entire rock formation. Whether flammable ice will occasionally appear in the lower rock formations is not yet accurate with current technology.
to this level of exploration.
After the Blue Whale's drilling rig passed through a depth of 60 meters, the drilling speed dropped significantly. Experts and scholars from domestic scientific research institutes carefully inspected every meter of drilled well to prevent unexpected situations.
Even the pumped rock cuttings must be carefully studied. This kind of physical data is also of great significance for future research on combustible ice.
Feng Chenyi also started to get busy, constantly running up and down the Blue Whale, checking the operating status of various equipment, consulting on the experience of workers on the job, and asking for their experience. Only the real experience of front-line workers is the most important factor in future design.
Only by meeting the best needs can we better design a maritime city that meets workers' lives and production.
Compared with the frantic work efficiency of the previous few days, the drilling team seemed to be living at a slower pace at this time. It took a long time to put down a drill pipe and allow the drill bit to move forward a certain distance.