Original Document: Company invents tech to change gas mining forever
New technology developed in Australia will revolutionise the process of eliminating pollutants produced during gas and petroleum mining and facilitate the production of clean geothermal energy, with independent tests showing it is almost 100 per cent effective in removing pollutants during the drilling and production process.
Annsca Prospecting has developed revolutionary technology to eliminate virtually all pollutants from the mining of gas and petroleum which can cause huge damage to the environment.
Water & Air Pollution Prevention System (WAPPS) is a modular system easily inserted into mining wells. WAPPS uses a combined system, (Intellectual Property Protected), of modules containing a mixture of nanotechnology compositions specifically designed to trace and capture any pollutant, to absorb and purify it to prevent it being dispersed in the environment. “There is currently no comparable technology which can lead to such high outcomes for pollution reduction. Our technology is unique and has huge ramifications for the cleaner mining of fossil fuels, as well as promoting the production of geothermal electricity,” said the founder of Annsca, Romolo Bertani, inventor with 25 years’ experience in R&D across many engineering fields and inventor of many successful patented products.
The WAPPS system is capable of decontamination of extreme levels of impurities and toxic materials caused by leakages from underground mining activities.
“Independent testing by CETEC – one of the most well-respected chemical laboratories in Australia – conducted at much higher levels of pollution than found during regular mining – shows up to 95.5% removal of pollutants from test drilling,” he said.
Mr Bertani has developed the technology with an expert team including Dr Amir Moezzi, who holds a PhD in Chemistry/Nanotechnology in addition to his chemical engineer/process design background, and chemical engineer Roger Swarz Black, plus other scientists’ part of his team.
“WAPPS provides many advantages over the conventional technologies by resolving once and for all the risk associated with leakage of the contaminants into the water table or atmosphere. In addition, it maximises the fracking fluid recovery during fracking drilling, which is becoming a more popular way of extracting energy. “It is essential that we solve this problem of pollution. The demand for oil and gas is expected to keep on rising for many years. Another 20 to 30 years will have to pass before we are starting using renewable energy in Australia, instead of fossil fuels. As our only source of energy, gas is of the upmost importance to Australia.
“We need to be able to access more gas in an environmentally sustainable manner to supply the local market. Oil and gas mining is extremely dangerous for the environment, and our health. We get much of our gas through coal seam gas (CSG) mining yet there are numerous dangers associated with CSG mining.
“Scientific research has found that almost 50 per cent of wells will leak through the production case, it then travels up the well into the ground water that we use for our drinking water and that can be catastrophic for our health. The gas also leaks into the atmosphere, damaging the ozone layer and contributing to the greenhouse effect,” said Mr Black. Particularly damaging to the environment can be hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”, which is a method of drilling for and extracting fossil fuels – primarily natural gas but also oil – from deep underground.
“Even with the latest technology available now, the extraction of fracking fluids and elimination of pollution during fracking mining is only 30 per cent to 50 per cent effective while the rest could end up in underground aquifers and aquitards and potentially our drinking water. Our WAPPS technology leads to cleaner and safer fracking drilling and eliminate pollutants entirely from escaping into the environment. “Furthermore, it will enable existing mining projects which have stalled or put off due to environmental concerns to move ahead. WAPPS is a cost-effective solution for miners to implement and can resolve the scrutiny associated with conventional mining methods for exploration and extraction of CSG and geothermal and oil. “Annsca has delivered the only technology that can remedy all of these pollution problems once and for all, for a very small cost to miners compared to the value of their mining projects. This exclusive system has now been proven to work in a real well, which have huge ramifications for the cleaner mining of fossil fuels and the production of geothermal energy worldwide”.
Annsca Prospecting is looking to become an energy company, developing its own wells to produce gas and geothermal using the WAPPS system to ensure a cleaner and safer environment. The company could be soon listed on the stock exchange, given the huge global market for its technology.
“We are currently negotiating with joint venture partners within the oil and gas industry with scope for an eventual initial public offering (IPO) of the business.
“In addition to current operating mines, it has been estimated there will be 40,000 new wells extracting coal seam gas in 40 years in Queensland alone. Just 10 per cent of that drilling using WAPPS could be a billion-dollar business for Annsca,” said Mr Black.
“Furthermore, very soon WAPPS can be used to de-pollute the millions of abandoned mines around the globe where more than 30 per cent have proven leakages. Our technology can be used to clean up these abandoned wells.” Annsca has secured letters of intent from joint venture partners in Italy and elsewhere in Europe to start early in 2019 producing its first geothermal well, creating a 1.5-megawatt local power station, with eight possible sites for similar projects all using the WAPPS system.
Annsca Prospecting is the exclusive licence holder for use of the intellectual property.
“WAPPS was conceived and developed in Australia by Australians, and it is our desire to maintain this technology as an 100% Australian innovation that will make our country proud,” said Mr Bertani.
“WAPPS has a huge role in facilitating more sustainable LNG drilling and gas-powered generation (GPG),” he said. Natural gas production is a big business for Australia. The National Forecasting Report for Eastern and South-Eastern Australian (December 2016) AEMO says Australia’s energy industry is ramping up to become one of the world’s largest LNG exporters, with demand for LNG and GPG the two areas of long-term growth in gas consumption. “GPG is forecast to play a key role in balancing the output from intermittent renewable energy sources as part of the transformation towards a low carbon future, in the absence of alternatives such as large-scale storage and demand management. Unexpected or disorderly coal plan retirements could require GPG investment using higher-cost gas to fill a gap in generation supply,” the report says.