Flow Back Water Treatment Using Swellable Organosilica Media

Abstract

ABS Materials has developed a new type of swellable organophilic material that extracts a wide array of dissolved hydrocarbons from oil field waters. With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (SBIR Program) orchestrated through the National Energy Technology Laboratory, ABS Materials has been engineering systems to use swellable glass to treat flow back waters to remove dissolved organics. Two pilot scale systems were built: a non-regenerating skid-mounted system which handles inputs of up to 4 gal/min and a 60 gal/min trailer mounted system which included a mechanism for swellable glass regeneration.

Extractive production of microbial oil using hydrophobic adsorbents: A comparative study

“…26 Furthermore, it has also been reported earlier that organo-silica matrices are known to hinder mass transfer by limiting the rate of diffusion. 27 The pore radius of 90 A in the case of SP70 offers it with an extensive surface area, in contrast to 60 A of Osorb. Also, the material strength provided by the styrene divinyl-based polymer makes it amenable for its use in CSTR conditions.…”

Water and beyond: Expanding the spectrum of large‐scale energy efficient separation processes

“…Disposal vs. treatment and ultimate reuse of the significant amounts of water used in hydrofracturing of shale gas reservoirs is currently receiving considerable attention,52–54 with a variety of approaches under discussion. Shale gas reserves clearly have enormous potential to provide energy and raw material resources for the US extending into the next century.…”

The flux of radionuclides in flowback fluid from shale gas exploitation

“…Flowback fluid is usually highly saline, contaminated with dissolved and suspended solids, heavy metals, fracking chemicals and naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) of varying concentrations (Edmiston et al 2011 ; Warner et al 2013 ). Many sedimentary shale formations can contain high concentrations of NORM, such as radium, uranium and thorium (Walter et al 2012 ).…”

“…Radium-226 and radium-228 are usually the most abundant radionuclides in flowback water and are the decay products of the uranium and thorium isotopes (Abdeen and Khalil 1995 ; Barbot et al 2013 ). Radium is more soluble than the largely immobile uranium and thorium isotopes and therefore can become dissolved in pore water and hydraulic fracturing fluid (Smith 1992 ; Abdeen and Khalil 1995 ) and can then flow back to the surface after hydraulic fracturing (Edmiston et al 2011 ). Equally, radon is the relatively short-lived daughter product of radium decay (half-life of Rn = 222–3.8 days, half-life of Ra-226 = 1,601 years), and so, although it is commonly found in groundwater (e.g.…”

“…At the time of writing this paper, there are very few shale gas wells drilled in Europe. In the USA, it is a routine for flowback water to be disposed of by deep injection (Edmiston et al 2011 ; Horner et al 2011 ), but this is generally not permitted in Europe, leading to the question of how best to dispose of flowback fluid. Therefore, in this study published, sources of flowback fluid have been collected to produce the first assessment of the volumes of flowback fluid and the concentrations of radionuclides that could be expected if European countries went ahead with shale gas exploitation and put this in the context of other fluxes of radionuclides.…”