Alternate Wastewater Treatment Methods

In researching this subject, I discovered an article featured in OilOnLine which provides an interesting twist on conventional fracking techniques. Virginia based PDN Mountaineer, LLC announced that they have partnered with Utah based Purestream Technology to incorporate their Trilogy system to treat and purify wastewater from their Marcellus operations. Purestream claims to be able to alleviate the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing by evaporating produced and flowback water at the well site. They scrub air emissions, clean and evaporate wastewater and provide water, oil and condensate data tracing technology. A single Trilogy unit place at a well site can process up to 63,000 gallons per day, effectively removing contaminants from waste water and rendering it cleaner than drinking water. They claim it can be engineered and deployed to address specific issues facing any region or producer.

Another technique gaining attention recently is cryogenic fracking. At least one driller reported that, by using carbon dioxide foam, they required only a tenth of the amount of water used during typical hydraulic fracturing. It has been described as being similar to Alka Seltzer in that it fizzes, expands, and then shrinks back down. The well in question reportedly required less than a half million gallons of water, a refreshing change in that it is less expensive to the driller and less alarming to environmentalists. It appears, but is unconfirmed, that they had used Halliburton's RapidFrac system complete with disintegrating frack balls, which are used to plug the well bore at various stages and isolate different zones for fracking. They claim to have saved the driller an incredible 2/3rds over normal costs incurred during conventional fracking efforts.

The Times Reporter (New Philadelphia) claims to know further details about these drilling efforts. They report the use of an Aqua Renew facility via Rettew Flowback, a company based out of Lancaster, PA. They recycle flowback or brine water by treating and filtering it to remove silt and salts, allowing it to be reused for fracking purposes. The facility runs 16 hours a day and can treat between 10,500 and 12,600 gallons per hour. Chris Foreman, a company executive, explains that they can reclaim about 95% of the water, with the rest being sludge which can be dumped at approved landfills. More Aqua Renew sites are promised as the method is perfected. One undisclosed Utica driller claims they have saved more than $6M in a single year by using this technology.

Exploration and Production Magazine purports that this, or similar methods, are superior for a number of reasons. They claim it will enable "production optimization with minimal post-frack cleanup". It significantly reduces the amount of equipment needed and allows for a smaller pad site. Further, it allows the driller to use ultra lightweight proppants (ULWP's) in lieu of sand. ULWP's have much lower specific gravity than conventional proppants, which reduces the settling rate in water and provides unprecedented proppant transport and longer effective frack length. Consequently, the amount of proppant, as well as the amount of water used, is reduced drastically. They claim the process "virtually eliminates post-frack clean-up time and water disposal costs".

The best news regarding this technique? It may actually provide twice the production with only a fraction of the water and sand/proppants required in conventional frack jobs. A study conducted in Mingo County, West Virginia compared two wells drilled using carbon dioxide and ULWP's to a number of offset wells drilled using conventional hydrofracking. The results? One well produced at nearly twice the rate of comparable offsets. The other was even better, resulting in more than twice the cumulative production (based on a 30 day average cumulative production figure). These wells were drilled into the Upper and Lower Huron shales, which exist throughout much of Appalachia. This may well be the future of fracking, and may pave the way for a revolution in the entire industry.

EQT's Senior Vice-President, Steve Schlotterbeck, acknowledges that "water continues to be a hot topic of conversation". They purport to be using a new and superior technique of their own. They claim it to be especially effective wherever a high silica content exists and the shale is brittle. They have used it on over 25 wells resulting in initial production rates 50-60% higher than those fracked using traditional methods (which reportedly leaves more than half the petrocarbons behind). They are still being pretty secretive about it, so it is unclear whether this is the same technique or an alternative to that discussed above.

It's a rapidly changing industry and new techniques and technology are introduced almost daily, some more effective than others, of course. Heaven only knows what will be proposed next, or how it may affect the industry. Who knows, perhaps one day something will arise that will even pacify (to some extent) environmentalists. The technology discussed here seems to be a small step in that direction. Time will tell.