Flexible borehole liner with diffusion barrier and method of use thereof

Abstract

A flexible bore hole liner, such as may be used to line or seal a hole drilled into the earth's surface, and featuring a diffusion barrier to prevent undesirable cross-contamination during, for example, sampling of subsurface fluids. The sampling liner includes a flexible diffusion barrier so as to reduce diffusion transport of contaminant(s) into and/or out of the interior volume of a bore hole liner. This flexible diffusion barrier may be incorporated into the construction of a portion of known borehole liner systems. The diffusion barrier is attached by a suitable means to the liner and/or the “spacer” accompanying the liner. The diffusion barrier prevents diffusion into and/or out of the liner in the sampling interval subtended by the spacer length, preventing cross-contamination of fluid samples obtained by the liner systems currently in use.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.