From The JH Weekly:
What the frack? Hydraulic fracturing – also known as ‘fracking’ or ‘frac’ing’ – is a process of extracting oil or gas trapped in the tiny bubbles of tight sands commonly called ‘shale,’ by use of fluids under high pressure. The exact ingredients of the fluid are shrouded in mystery; closely protected trade secrets. “Halliburton’s proprietary fluids are the result of years of extensive research, development testing,” said Diana Gabriel, a company spokeswoman. “We have gone to great lengths to ensure that we are able to protect the fruits of the company’s research.” Industry reps maintain that the drilling fluids are mostly made up of water and sand, which acts as a proppant – holding a crack open long enough to extract the gas or oil. Officials insist that when chemicals are used, they are just a tiny fraction of the overall mix, and releasing specific details would only frighten and confuse the public, and would come at great expense to the industry’s competitive business. Chesapeake Energy, the nation’s largest gas driller, also stated proprietary concerns when asked by New York State regulators to disclose the chemicals in its drilling brew.
When New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) finally passed legislation forcing service companies to reveal the list of chemicals they use or cease drilling, they were shocked at the number: 260 chemicals. Of the 300 or so compounds the Bureau of Land Management suspects are being used by drillers in the Wind River Range and Pinedale Anticline, 65 are listed as hazardous by feds, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene. Many of the rest are unstudied and unregulated. Even more alarming, up to two-thirds of the fluids are never recovered through ‘flowback’ and remain underground … somewhere, according to Halliburton’s own records.
Meanwhile an Albuquerque company has patented new desalination technology for treating frac water at the wellhead, according to a report from Dohnia Dorman writing for Water and Wastewater.com. From the article:
The new water treatment unit, built by Altela, Inc. of Albuquerque, started purifying water last month at the BLX well head, and results show a complete success in the purification process. The mobile AltelaRain® system is 45 feet long and 8 feet wide – similar in size to a semi-tractor trailer. It is continuously converting the brackish frac water into water that is less than 50 mg/liter in salt concentration – about ten times cleaner than municipal drinking water.
“Altela’s new technology has created a unique opportunity for PA’s shale-gas industry to beneficially re-use and expand water supplies. The natural gas industry can now become a key element of environmental sustainability and stewardship here in the northeastern Unites States,” said [Stan Berdell, President of BLX, Inc., a natural gas producer in western Pennsylvania].
Altela has patented its new desalination process that economically removes all salts and other contaminants with a movable unit that sits directly at the gas wells. The innovation from Altela that allows the process to be so economical is centered around its non-pressurized technology, for which it can use inexpensive plastics, rather than corrodible metal, to purify these brackish waters. Its recent success in the Marcellus builds upon the company’s prior installations in the western United States and Canada, including receiving the first-ever water discharge regulatory permit to place clean treated oil-field water directly into the most pristine reach of the Colorado River.
“We don’t use pressure,” said CEO Ned Godshall, “so our product is much less expensive because it doesn’t have to have exotic metals to reduce their inherent corrosion. Our inexpensive plastic holds up to these brackish waters and that means our system provides clean water at a very economical price, from this 360-million-year-old Marcellus Shale brackish water. This is a real ‘win-win’ for both the environment and U.S. energy independence, since the water for the new wells being frac’d will be recycled water, rather than new water from Pennsylvania’s waterways.”