(Tech Connections Column, June 2011, American Oil and Gas Reporter)

Lance Cole, who has written Tech Connections for years, has now passed the torch. It is a time of change for PTTC, as Lance indicated in his April column. As of mid-May, PTTC no longer is formally associated with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, although we continue to cooperate closely on projects of mutual interest.

Newspapers and industry journals are full these days of concerns regarding changes taking place in both regulatory and technology arenas related to managing fracture flow-back water in natural gas shale plays. This is especially true of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, but that attention is present in all U.S. shale-gas plays. We see the dynamic playing out in Texas, Arkansas and other statehouses where lawmakers either are changing their states’ fracturing regulations and reporting requirements for frac treatment chemicals, or are considering doing so.

The move to greater transparency in fracture treatment so the interested public can learn what is being injected (and later produced) and eventually treated is important to both the industry and the citizenry. This effort is highlighted by the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission and Ground Water Protection Council initiating their FracFocus website.

Commercial processes are available to treat frac fluids and new technologies are being developed all the time. Depending on the basin and prevailing state regulations, flow back either is injected into regulated injection wells, reconditioned and used in new frac jobs, or treated in municipal wastewater facilities.

With the large frac jobs (exceeding 100,000 barrels) seen in some shale plays, conserving water is a concern even in areas not normally considered arid. Potable and agricultural water is becoming ever more precious across the country.

Eventually, commercial treatment using filtration, reverse osmosis, ion exchange, perhaps application in constructed wetlands, and other techniques may allow large-scale reuse of fracture flow back in irrigation, other industrial uses, or just release to surface waters.

PTTC usually looks for information on commercially viable technology to provide to the oil and gas industry. Sometimes, however, we look further back in the development cycle to see what tomorrow’s technology may be.

One such futuristic technology is being developed now. The Department of Energy had been supporting a promising nanoengineered sorbent developed by Absorbent Materials Corporation (ABSMaterials) called Osorb®. The initial SBIR (small business innovative research) work led to two pilot-scale units for field tests, the largest being a one barrel-a-minute skid-mounted unit. DOE’s support allowed some laboratory tests on actual flow-back fluids.

The ABSMaterials’ sorbents are “swelling glasses,” which treat dissolved organics in aqueous systems. These swellable, organically modified silicas (SOMS) do not absorb water, but are highly effective at removing many organics from water, swelling to eight times their original volume. SOMS are regenerated easily through mild heating with little or no degradation for many cycles.

One of the most difficult (and toxic) contaminants in flow back from Marcellus Shale wells is barium. The inability to remove barium is a significant obstacle to full development. ABSMaterials has found a way to remove barium by an organic chelation process. Thus, a two-step process to remove organics first and then barium is technically feasible. ABSMaterials has been working with Halliburton on the pilot unit, and with some producers for their specific flow-back water treatment.

A commercially nearer-term water treatment system has been fielded by Altela Inc. It, too, is recorded by DOE as a success for its program. The DOE project was targeted specifically to the Marcellus Shale basin. The AltelaRain® system utilizes a nonpressurized, inexpensive plastics-based distillation process that reduces the water volume requiring disposal by up to 90 percent. The distilled product is then available for reuse as a frac fluid or for surface disposal.

Over DOE’s demonstration period at a Pennsylvania well site, the average treated water cost was 20 percent lower than conventional disposal costs. The operation passed the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s regulatory requirements.

As a result of the DOE testing program, a much larger commercial facility was built in Williamsport, Pa., to treat about 100,000 gallons a day of flow back and produced water.

DOE has several other produced water projects looking at a variety of water treatment technologies even further into the future. Additionally, several production companies are using proprietary water treatment technologies on their wells. With all this activity, several winners–picked by the marketplace–will emerge to meet the needs of producers and the public. The result will be to protect groundwater and public health, lower operator costs, reduce water hauling miles and the number of disposal wells, increase water availability, and prevent contamination of surface waters–not to mention a lot of natural gas. Then, everyone wins.