Microbial impacts on shale gas exploitation

了解微生物群落对未来地下开采的反应是一个关键的不确定性，它涉及许多科学和技术领域，包括清洁水的提供、废物（如二氧化碳和放射性废物）的安全处理、地热能源的收集和非常规气体的水力压裂。在英国，页岩气产业的发展被视为为英国提供可靠和安全的能源结构的关键。然而，人们对压裂过程中和压裂后微生物的影响知之甚少，这可能会对该技术产生重大影响。例如，现有的或引入的微生物可能会产生有益的影响，提高天然气采收率或帮助生物修复压裂过程中受到污染的大量水。它们也可能产生负面影响，如变质反应和生物膜形成引起的流体/气体流量减少。最大限度地利用曼彻斯特和Rawwater的专业知识和基础设施（并以合作伙伴之间最近完成的NERC IAA项目为基础），因此，该多学科博士学位的目标是：1。完成对水力压裂系统微生物学的详细文献综述，为该项目提供边界条件。确定可在原位条件下代谢的关键压裂添加剂，并确定其支持的生物地球化学反应（重点是酸化反应和多糖生产）。在合作伙伴实验室施加的原位条件下，确定页岩裂缝网络中微生物定植的潜力。量化微生物生长对孔隙度和流体输送的影响

Understanding how microbial communities will respond to future exploitation of the subsurface is a key uncertainty, which cuts across many areas of science and technology, including the provision of clean water, the safe disposal of waste materials (e.g. CO2 and radwaste), harvesting geothermal energy and fracking for nonconventional gases. The development of a shale gas industry in the UK is seen as crucial to delivering a reliable and secure energy mix to the UK. However, microbial impacts during and after fracking are very poorly understood and could have major implications for the technology. For example, existing or introduced microorganisms could have beneficial impacts, enhancing gas recovery or helping bioremediate large volumes of water contaminated during fracking. They could also have negative impacts through souring reactions and reduced fluid/gas flow caused by biofilm formation. Making maximal use of expertise and infrastructure at Manchester and Rawwater (and building on a recently complete NERC IAA project between the partners), the objectives for this multidisciplinary PhD are therefore to;1. Complete a detailed literature review of the microbiology of fracking systems, providing boundary conditions for theproject.2. Identify key fracking additives that can be metabolised under in situ conditions and determine the biogeochemicalreactions that they support (focusing on souring reactions and polysaccharide production)3. Determine the potential for microbial colonisation of fracture networks within shales under in situ conditions imposed inthe laboratories of the partners4. Quantify the impact of microbial growth on porosity and fluid transport