Researchers seek ways to make fracking greener
University of Alberta gets $2 million to study impact on water chemistry
Researchers at the University of Alberta are looking at ways to make hydraulic fracking more environmentally friendly and costefficient when it comes to water usage.
The five-year study, which has received $2 million from industry and a national research council, will examine the potential impacts of fracking fluid when it spills on the ground or flows back to the surface from a hydraulic fractur- ing well. Scientists also want to uncover new methods for reusing and treating that flowback and produced water.
“Essentially, the water chemistry changes as a function of time as it comes out of the well and it also changes depending on where you’re fracturing in the formation,” said Daniel Alessi, an assistant professor in the U of A’s earth and atmospheric sciences department. He is working with aquatic toxicology expert Greg Goss and analyti- cal organic chemistry researcher Jonathan Martin.
“We want to build up a database where the companies can look at this and say, ‘OK, if I’m at this point in my well, I can expect this type of water, for example, and therefore use this treatment process for this fraction of the water.’
“If we can increase recycling by 10 per cent, that’s a lot of money we’re talking about in terms of cost-savings for the company … and by increasing recycling, we’re directly mitigating water being taken out of surface water bodies.”
Fracking is an unconventional oil recovery method that involves pumping fresh water mixed with chemicals and beads underground at high pressure to fracture the rock. The beads hold open the tiny cracks to release trapped natural gas or oil.
“Some of that water, anywhere from a few per cent to most of it, will come back out of the well and the problem is that it’s gone from fresh water that had some chemicals put into it to water mixed with whatever is in the formation itself.”
In Alberta’s Duvernay oil and gas field, fluid flows back with much more salt content than the water pumped in, Alessi said.
Researchers also want to find out if the chemicals pumped into wells with the fresh water undergo reactions and transform below the surface. “One of the things we want to study is if that something different is a chemical of concern that might have gone from something benign to something of potentially environmental concern.”
Best practices found during the study will be shared through scientific publications and public forums.
The study received nearly $1 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Energy company Encana provided more than $1 million. Alessi said the research will be published in peer-reviewed journals and there are no external pressures on his research.
Unrelated research announced this week from the University of Calgary suggested fracking, not the disposal of waste water by injecting it back underground, was behind earthquakes caused by humans in Alberta and British Columbia.
If we can increase recycling by 10 per cent, that’s a lot of money we’re talking about in terms of cost-savings for the company.