Scientists develop new fracking water treatment technology

A research team at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada has developed advanced dialysis cells that can treat water produced during gas extraction and significantly reduce the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing.

The technology addresses both carbon management and water desalination and also supports a part of the industry’s chemical requirements. The cells use excess carbon dioxide to desalinate wastewater for reuse and also produce hydrochloric acid and carbonate salts as byproducts. These can be used in fracking, and are normally purchased and transported long distances.

UBC chemical and biological engineering professor Clean Energy Research Centre member David Wilkinson told the Vancouver Sun: "A lot of technologies look at these issues as two separate problems, but we are simultaneously addressing both of them."

Project member Alfred Lam said that if the technology were applied to all tight oil and shale gas extraction in Alberta, it could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than one million tonnes per year and reduce freshwater use by more than two billion litres.

"These are chemicals you would normally find in frack fluid to produce tight oil or shale gas," he added.

"The producers then don’t have to source these materials from elsewhere and that further reduces the carbon footprint."

The Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation has granted $500,000 for the UBC team and Simon Fraser University collaborator Steven Holdcroft to scale-up and commercialise the system.

A larger version of the system will be tested in the lab using real backflow liquid recovered from oil and gas wells, before moving to field trials.