Carbon Dioxide

AuntPeggy

AuntPeggy

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We just took a truckload of household goods from New York to Oklahoma and then returned by road. We saw a lot of tanker trucks carrying CO2. Does anyone know where it is coming from? Where is it going? What is it used for? In other words, why is CO2 being transported?
 
A large amount of it is being produced from gas wells in the Four Corners area, large pipelines send it across the country (in a relatively impure form, maybe 90% CO2) for reinjection into other well fields as CO2 floods. It dissolves into and thins the oil in the formation and allows it to flow through formation cracks easier while still keeping pressure up, enhancing oil recovery from existing older wells.

What you see in the trucks is normally a higher purity liquefied CO2, being trucked from production areas to market areas, for use in industry (beverage/restaurant use, welding gases, etc). It is also occasionally used in the oilfield for stimulation treatments where they inject it into older wells mixed with hydrochloric acid, to open up clogged rock pores in the formation and allow fluids to flow again.
 
AuntPeggy said:
We just took a truckload of household goods from New York to Oklahoma and then returned by road. We saw a lot of tanker trucks carrying CO2. Does anyone know where it is coming from? Where is it going? What is it used for? In other words, why is CO2 being transported?
Click to expand...

Ever heard of dry ice?
 
airguy said:
A large amount of it is being produced from gas wells in the Four Corners area, large pipelines send it across the country (in a relatively impure form, maybe 90% CO2) for reinjection into other well fields as CO2 floods. It dissolves into and thins the oil in the formation and allows it to flow through formation cracks easier while still keeping pressure up, enhancing oil recovery from existing older wells.

What you see in the trucks is normally a higher purity liquefied CO2, being trucked from production areas to market areas, for use in industry (beverage/restaurant use, welding gases, etc). It is also occasionally used in the oilfield for stimulation treatments where they inject it into older wells mixed with hydrochloric acid, to open up clogged rock pores in the formation and allow fluids to flow again.
Click to expand...

Not a bad description of oilfield uses...another use to add: hydraulic fracture stimulation treatment of oil and gas wells is a large use of trucked CO2 - there are several benefits including adding energy to help recover the stimulation fluids, miscibility (CO2 is miscibile with water and oil under the correct conditions), and it reduces the total volume of water required for the frac. Of course all fracing is evil so I shouldn't post this (note that the term "frac" is short for hydraulic fracture stimulation so there is no "k" in frac.)
 
So, sounds like the noticeable increase is due to fracking.

I was always taught that co2 does not enter a liquid state. I'm guessing it is a pressurized gas.

Ed, would they be shipping dry ice in tanks?
 
CO2 is used in massive quantities by the beverage industry - every bottling plant and restaurant in the country. It's transported in bulk in large tankers to regional storage facilities that fill and distribute smaller cylinders.
 
AuntPeggy said:
So, sounds like the noticeable increase is due to fracking.

I was always taught that co2 does not enter a liquid state. I'm guessing it is a pressurized gas.

Ed, would they be shipping dry ice in tanks?
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They ship it compressed to facilities that cool it to make dry ice. Above 5ish atmospheres it goes liquid.
 
EdFred said:
They ship it compressed to facilities that cool it to make dry ice. Above 5ish atmospheres it goes liquid.
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The typical CO2 tankers you see on the road are transporting refrigerated liquid at about 200-250 psi and around zero degrees Fahrenheit. They are heavily insulated and the actual tank inside is considerably smaller than the external shell you see on the outside, just like a liquid nitrogen or liquid oxygen tanker.
 
AuntPeggy said:
So, sounds like the noticeable increase is due to fracking.

I was always taught that co2 does not enter a liquid state. I'm guessing it is a pressurized gas.
Click to expand...

CO2 is liquified for many uses. The truck transports are carrying liquified CO2. When it leaks from a bad fitting the liquid is visible before it vaporizes. It can freeze the ground to the point that the ground stays frozen for days afterwards - in Kansas in the summer.

Note that there is no "k" in fracing.
 
AuntPeggy said:
I was always taught that co2 does not enter a liquid state. I'm guessing it is a pressurized gas.
Click to expand...
Not at 1 atmosphere it won't, but you can compress it fairly easily to a few atmospheres and liquify it at reasonable temperatures (I'd have to lookup the phase diagram to give exact numbers).
 
FWIW
phasediagramco2.png
 
Clark1961 said:
.....(note that the term "frac" is short for hydraulic fracture stimulation so there is no "k" in frac.)
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I believe Post bought the rights to the extra "K" so they could use it in the "special" cereal... :lol::rofl::nono:
 
Apparently there is a difference of opinion between engineers and linguists about the "k". Engineers say that there is no "k" because it is a shortening of "fracturing". Linguists say that the "k" is added just as in panicking and picnicking and shellacking to denote a short "a" sound. They note that otherwise, fracing should rhyme with facing or lacing or bracing.

I side with the English majors.
 
Most English majors are idiots when it comes to real world stuff. I mean, they majored in English, way to prepare for the real world.
 
EdFred said:
Most English majors are idiots when it comes to real world stuff. I mean, they majored in English, way to prepare for the real world.
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Yeah, but they usually learned to spell.
 
EdFred said:
Most English majors are idiots when it comes to real world stuff. I mean, they majored in English, way to prepare for the real world.
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Been gone for quite a while, but some things never change......like Ed :yes:
 
AuntPeggy said:
Yeah, but they usually learned to spell.
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Do we really want to get into how many English words are spelled "wrong" according to the rules of spelling? I'll stick with people who actually know what they are talking about.
 
EdFred said:
Do we really want to get into how many English words are spelled "wrong" according to the rules of spelling? I'll stick with people who actually know what they are talking about.
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Good point..... I was gonna READ further but realized I had already READ that post.....

It should look like: I was gonna REED further but realized I had already RED that post...

Don't get me started...:nonod::D
 
AuntPeggy said:
Apparently there is a difference of opinion between engineers and linguists about the "k". Engineers say that there is no "k" because it is a shortening of "fracturing". Linguists say that the "k" is added just as in panicking and picnicking and shellacking to denote a short "a" sound. They note that otherwise, fracing should rhyme with facing or lacing or bracing.

I side with the English majors.
Click to expand...

Enlightening but I never had much use for English majors, at least in their specialty...

In this case we are allowed to hack up a word but then we have to follow rules afterward? Sounds a bit pedantic to me.
 
A CO2 spill appears to have occurred here:
The symptoms of carbon dioxide poisoning such as headache, lethargy and nausea can be mistaken for other more common illnesses such as the flu. Mild carbon dioxide poisoning brings symptoms such as elevated blood pressure, twitching muscles, flushing, discussions about English Majors in a thread about carbon dioxide, and reduced neural activity. This level of exposure causes illness but not death. As the severity of exposure or length of exposure increases so do the symptoms to include headache, lethargy, panic. convulsions, stomach pain, irregular heartbeat, chest pain, memory problems, landing long, and unconsciousness.
​
 
Last edited:
Jim Logajan said:
A CO2 spill appears to have occurred here:


Signs and symptoms of carbon dioxide poisoning may include:
  • Dull headache
  • Weakness
  • Dizziness
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Shortness of breath
  • Confusion
  • Blurred vision
  • Loss of consciousness
Click to expand...


I think that describes the Trayvon Martin thread over in the SZ..:D
 
N801BH said:
I think that describes the Trayvon Martin thread over in the SZ..:D
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I don't go there anymore. Thankfully. Anyway, I corrected my post - somehow someone on the Internet had CO poisoning symptoms under CO2. Now my faith in the information I find on the net is slightly shaken.
 
Jim Logajan said:
I don't go there anymore. Thankfully. Anyway, I corrected my post - somehow someone on the Internet had CO poisoning symptoms under CO2.
Click to expand...

Probably a linguist thought the 2 was not appropriate...
 
So all we need to do is cool the atmosphere to -100 and the CO2 will 'snow?'

Does that actually happen? There are temps below -100F in Antarctica . . . does it snow CO2???
 
comanchepilot said:
So all we need to do is cool the atmosphere to -100 and the CO2 will 'snow?'

Does that actually happen? There are temps below -100F in Antarctica . . . does it snow CO2???
Click to expand...

On Mars it does - here the partial pressure is still not high enough for the CO2 we have in the atmosphere.
 
Clark1961 said:
Not a bad description of oilfield uses...another use to add: hydraulic fracture stimulation treatment of oil and gas wells is a large use of trucked CO2 - there are several benefits including adding energy to help recover the stimulation fluids, miscibility (CO2 is miscibile with water and oil under the correct conditions), and it reduces the total volume of water required for the frac. Of course all fracing is evil so I shouldn't post this (note that the term "frac" is short for hydraulic fracture stimulation so there is no "k" in frac.)
Click to expand...

There's a "k" in frak.
 
Wait. Isn't this the same CO2 that causes global warming? :rolleyes:

Shouldn't we hijack these trucks and hide them? :dunno:
 
Geico266 said:
Wait. Isn't this the same CO2 that causes global warming? :rolleyes:

Shouldn't we hijack these trucks and hide them? :dunno:
Click to expand...

Now paging a Mr Al Gore...... Pleae pick up the white customer service phone for an important call from a DR Jack Kevorkian...:D:lol::nono:
 
N801BH said:
Now paging a Mr Al Gore...... Pleae pick up the white customer service phone for an important call from a DR Jack Kevorkian...:D:lol::nono:
Click to expand...

You mean the same CO2 we use in our beverages is the same CO2 that causes global warming? I have a solution to the whole MMGW thing. Outlaw burping. :yes:

Okay, outlawing burping might not be practical. Let's outlaw beer. :eek:
 
Refineries use this stuff by the ton to purge the equipment after a shut down and repair. They can not have any O2 in the plant when they start up. Other wise it catches fire, blows up and other stuff they don't like.
 
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