• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.227-235
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• 2014

Interest has been growing worldwide in unconventional natural gas that has become an increasingly important source of energy in the world. Unconventional gas development, including shale gas, generally involves a larger environmental impact, compared to conventional gas development, due to its intensity and scale of the operation. There are a growing number of studies on identifying and minimizing the environmental impacts of unconventional gas development. This study aims to examines the current environmental policies and regulatory systems related to the unconventional gas development. The study shows that few environmental regulation exists concerning unconventional gas development, even in the USA where unconventional gas development is most actively pursued. Regulations, however, are being developed based on studies currently underway on health and environmental risks of unconventional gas development and on guidelines designed to reduce the risks. In a world where environmental regulations are ever strengthening, review the environmental regulatory systems and guidelines about unconventional gas need to be established for Korean firms to understand environmental impacts of unconventional gas development they invest or take part in, enabling them to manage and operate gas activities in a way that minimizes environmental damages.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.639-648
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• 2013

Unconventional natural gas resources are now estimated to be as large as conventional resources. Unconventional natural gas has became an increasingly important source of energy in the world since the start of this century. The factors that drive natural gas demand and supply point more and more to a future in which natural gas plays greater role in the global energy mix. The expansion of using natural gas will be expected in Korea. This research aims to analyze environmental impacts of expansion of unconventional natural gas. This research was carried out for comparative analysis between global energy mix and Korea energy mix, and developed a case that reflect the changed energy mix due to the expansion of unconventional natural gas in Korea. Also this research evaluate the production of air pollutants and the cost of the damage in power generation sector. The results of this research can be summarized as that natural gas portion of future global energy mix (about 25%) is greater than Korea energy mix (about 12%). This research developed a case that replace 10% energy of power generation sector to natural gas in the 6th demand supply program, reflecting the changed energy mix due to the expansion of natural gas use. In that case, air pollutants would be reduced gradually through 2015 to 2027. In detail, carbon dioxide reduces 22 million tons and environmental damage cost reduces 4500 billion won by 2027.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.551-561
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• 2014

Natural gas is the world's fastest-growing fossil fuel, with consumption increasing from 113 trillion cubic feet(Tcf) in 2010 to 185Tcf in 2040. While conventional natural gas streams from the earth relatively easily, unconventional gas finds are more difficult to develop and more costly to produce. Right now, there are six main types of unconventional gas, including deep gas, gas-containing shale, coalbed methane(CBM), geopressurized zones, Arctic and subsea hydrates, and tight gas. Tight gas refers to natural gas reservoirs locked in extraordinarily impermeable, hard rocks(sandstone, siltstone or carbonate sedimentary rocks). In this study, we analyzed total 375 papers(2000-2014) of tight gas by country, institution, international cooperation etc.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.265-273
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• 2014

Unconventional resources are natural resources which require greater than industry-standard levels of technology or investment to exploit the commercial development. The key point is that unconventional resources are lower quality fuel sources and are not as economically viable as crude oil and conventional gas. Over the past 100 years, Conventional oil and gas has been satisfied with the energy demands. But developing countries such as China and India, the introduction of the developed countries and the surge of energy due to the depletion of unconventional energy resources will be the limelight. According to be analyzed in the academic literature to unconventional gas and oil(2000~2012) by the program of 'web of science', the research activities 402 papers in unconventional gas and 1,581 papers in unconventional oil.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.154-165
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• 2014

Development of unconventional natural resources such as shale gas, shale oil and coal bed methane, has been activated and improved the productivity due to the recent technology advance in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. However, the flowback water mixed with chemical additives, and the brine water containing oil, gas, high levels of salts and radioactive metals is produced during the gas production. Potential negative environmental impact due to large volumes of the produced wastewater is increasingly seen as the major obstacles to the unconventional natural resource development. In this study an integrated framework for the flowback and brine water treatment is proposed, and we reviewed the upcoming state of the art technology in water treatment. Basic separation processes which include not only membrane, evaporation, crystallization and desalination processes, but the potential water reuse and recycling techniques can be applied for the unconventional natural resource industry.

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.36-44
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• 2008

Natural gas in tight reservoirs, one of unconventional hydrocarbon resources, has become a significant exploration and exploitation targets. Tight gas reservoirs are the gas-bearing rocks that commonly have a permeability of less than 0.1 millidarcy (mD). Tight gas reservoirs are characterized by extensive and deep locations as well as abnormal pressure such as over- or under-pressure. The tight gas reservoirs are independent of structural or stratigraphic traps, whereas conventional gases normally occur at these traps. Tight gas reservoirs can be productive when stimulated by hydraulic fracturing. Better production areas within the tight reservoir beds are referred to as sweet spots that are commonly caused by natural fractures, which should be understood and identified to enhance the recovery of the gas from tight reservoirs. The exploration and production techniques allow the commercial production of tight gas, one of environmentally friendly resources. Slant and horizontal wells have best production when they intersect the fractures. Gas production from the tight reservoirs has rapidly grown in U.S. and Canada. Indeed, the U.S. gas production of tight sandstones increases from 11.1% in 1990 to 24.1% in 2005. The presence of tight gas reservoirs has been suggested on the Korean offshore block 6-1. Paradigm shift from conventional to unconventional tight reservoir is required to develop the tight gas from the block.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.412-419
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• 2012

Increasing demand for natural gas and higher natural gas prices in the recent decades have led many people to pursue unconventional methods of natural gas production. POSCO-Gwangyang synthetic natural gas (SNG) project was launched in 2010. As the market price of natural gas goes up, the increase of its price gets more sensitive due to the high cost of transportation and liquefaction. This project can make the SNG economically viable. In parallel with this project, KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation) joined in launching the SNG Quality Standard Bureau along with KOGAS (Korea Gas Corporation), POSCO and so on. KEPCO Research Institute is in charge of SNG fueled gas turbine combustion test. In this research, several combustion tests were conducted to find out the effect of hydrogen contents in SNG on gas turbine combustion. The hydrogen in synthetic natural gas did not affect on gas turbine combustion characteristics which are turbine inlet temperature including pattern factor and emission performance. However, flame stable region in ${\Phi}$-Air flow rate map was shifted to the lean condition due to autocatalytic effect of hydrogen.

• 한국석유지질학회:학술대회논문집
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• autumn
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• pp.28-46
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• 2001

Natural gas is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases and impurities such as nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide and a clean energy producing no pollution materials for combustion. Currently, the demand of the natural gas is rapidly increasing due to worldwide environmental problems. According to Hubbert's study in the past, the natural gas was predicted as rapidly depleted resources, and then the results led to high gas price and limitation of usage during 1980s. Afterward, the study of natural gas resources based on geology identified the additional natural gas resources that were not considered in Hubbert's study. They are unconventional gas, additional resources in the existed reservoirs, and natural gas in deep subsurface areas. Such additional resouces made the future of natural gas bright and pormised low and stable gas price in the future. Deep natural gas is defined as the gas existing at or below 15,000ft$(4,752{\cal}m)$ in depth from the surface. According to the study from the U.S. Geological Survey(USGS) in 1995, 1,412 TCF of technically recoverable natural gas was remained to be discovered or developed in the onshore of United States. A significant part of that resource base, 114 TCF, exists at deep sedimentary basins, and it shows wide distribution with various geological environments. In 1995, the deep gas contributed to $6.7\% of total supply amount of natural gas in the United States and is expected to be $18.7\% by 201.5. However, the development of the deep gas is a high risky business due to expensive investment and high portion of dry holes, although it is developed. Thus, for developing the deep gas economically, it is necessary to overcome many technical challenges. In this paper, for increasing success rate of the deep gas, 1) geologic and compositional characteristics, and production cost have been analyzed according to depth, 2) technical problems related to deep gas production have been summarized, and 3) finally future study areas for increasing application of the deep gas have been suggested. For reference, this paper was written based on the study results from USGS and Gas Research Institute(GRI), for the United States is doing the most active R&D in the deep gas area, and thus, has many reliable data.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.351-358
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• 2013

Methane burns more clearly than any other fossil fuels. Coalbed methane(CBM) is natural gas contained in coal beds. This gas is usually producted from coal that is either too deep or too poor-quality to be mined commercially. While global coalbed methane resource estimates are rough, they indicate between 84 and 377tcm, which compares with proven natural gas reserves of 180tcm. Coalbed methane resources are currently only produced on a major scale in the United States, Canada, Australia and China. In this study, we analysed total 109 published papers for the CBM during the 1990~2012 periods by the programs of 'web of science'. The results of analysis, the CBM study led by the United States, the follow India and Australia. In subject area(web of sciences), Energy Fuels is 57, Engineering 58 and Geology 41 papers, respectively.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.169-179
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• 2013

Well testing in unconventional reservoirs, such as tight or shale gas formations, presents considerable challenges. It is difficult to estimate the reservoir properties in ultra-low permeability formation because of poor inflow prior to stimulation and excessive test duration. Moreover, radial flow may not develop in hydraulically fractured horizontal wells. For these reasons, the cost of test is high and the accuracy is relatively low. Accordingly, industry is turning to an alternate testing method, diagnostic fracture injection test (DFIT), which is conducted prior to the main hydraulic fracture treatments. Nowadays, DFIT are regarded as the most practical way to obtain good estimates of reservoir properties in unconventional reservoirs. Various methods may be used for interpreting DFIT data. This paper gives an explanation of those methods in detail and examines three actual field data. These show how various analysis methods can be applied to consistently interpret fracture closure pressure and time, as well as before and after closure flow regimes and reservoir properties from field data.