Drilling and pumping

9 lines that use it

What it looks like on the line

• SulfurMelt it underground. In the Frasch process, three concentric pipes go down into a sulfur deposit. Superheated water at 165 °C goes down the outer pipe, melting the sulfur, which has a melting point of 115 °C.
• Bottled waterDraw the source water. Spring water flows naturally from an underground formation to the surface. Mineral water is groundwater that has flowed over rock and emerged from the ground, and other bottled water starts as well or municipal supply.
• Lithium carbonatePump up salar brine. Salty groundwater enriched with dissolved lithium sits under high-altitude salt flats in places such as Chile and Argentina. It is pumped to the surface and spread across evaporation ponds.
• WaterPump from the aquifer. A well is dug, driven or drilled to reach an aquifer, a layer of permeable rock, gravel or sand holding water. A pump lifts the groundwater up the shaft.
• Natural gasDrill into the gas pocket. A well is bored into rock that traps gas, or into an oil field where gas is dissolved in the oil. Gas from oil wells is called associated gas.
• Lithium brinePump the brine up. Wells sunk into the salt flat bring up lithium-rich brine from beneath the crust. In the Salar de Atacama the brine carries about 2,700 parts per million of lithium.
• SulfurLift the liquid sulfur. Compressed air in the inner pipe lifts the molten sulfur to the surface, where it is poured into tanks or vats to harden. The product is about 99.5% pure sulfur, light yellow.
• SeawaterDraw it from the sea. Pumps lift seawater through intake pipes, or tidal channels let it flow into holding ponds. The water carries about 3.5% dissolved salts, mostly sodium and chloride.
• Crude oilCase and cement the hole. At set depths, sections of steel pipe slightly smaller than the hole are lowered in and cemented into place. Each casing isolates the rock behind it, and the well can then continue deeper with a smaller bit.
• Crude oilSpin the bit down. A rig rotates a long string of pipe with a bit on the end, boring a hole from 12 centimeters up to 1 meter wide. Modern directional drilling lets a well turn from vertical and run sideways through a thin layer of oil-bearing rock.
• Crude oilBring it to the surface. Oil rises on its own pressure at first and is lifted with pumps later. Some natural gas usually comes up with it, and the oil is sent off to be refined.
• SkyscraperSink deep foundations. Drilled shafts are bored and filled with concrete and steel reinforcement. Other foundations use piles of wood, reinforced concrete or steel driven by a pile driver. A deep foundation carries the building loads down to firm ground.