The Next Big Bet In Fracking: Water

Wall Street Journal ^ | 22 August 2018 | Christopher M. Matthews

[zeestephen]

Fledgling companies, many backed by private equity, are rushing to help shale drillers deal with one of their trickiest problems: what to do with the vast volumes of wastewater that are a byproduct of fracking wells...Moving water by pipe costs anywhere from 60 cents to $1.50 a barrel compared with more than $2 by truck...

[Red Badger]

Purify it and use it for irrigation..................

[zeestephen]

It has a high salt content.

Presumably because that area was once under an ocean?

[buffaloguy]

How about we let it evaporate?

[South Dakota]

It takesalong time to evaporate.
On the Mesa field, near Big Piney Wyoming, they were trying that.
Crews were pumping frac water to sprayers.

I dont know if they arestill doing it but its ashort season ifthey are

[Red Badger]

Desalinate................

[McGavin999]

GMTA. Desalinate and use for crops

[Deaf Smith]

Frac liquids returned to the surface is the chemical mix that was pumped unded high pressure during the Frac job

If could contain acids, petrol chemicals and what ever else the PE ordered for the job...

it is waste.

[Beagle8U]

Do what they used to do for the past 100 years, spray it on gravel roads to keep the dust down.

[McGavin999]

That might solve the roadside weed problems

[E. Pluribus Unum]

That’s how we got Times Beach.

[palmer]

Desalination costs 4 cents per 10 gallons. That’s $1.68 per barrel.

[Beagle8U]

They’ve been spraying brine on the roads around here for as long as I’ve been alive.

[marktwain]

Frac liquids returned to the surface is the chemical mix that was pumped unded high pressure during the Frac job If could contain acids, petrol chemicals and what ever else the PE ordered for the job... it is waste.

Give us some amounts.

Ordinary water contains lots of things in tiny amounts.

The dose is the poison. Tiny amounts of things are harmless.

Much may be less harmful than a lot of ordinary well water.

The amount of various stuff will depend on each location.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Just make sure it doesn’t also contain dioxin.

[McGavin999]

But if it costs $1.50 to move it by pipe and it’s still salty it could only be put into the ocean and som greenie would say the salt content needs to be adjusted. Besides, this is America, someone will find a way to do it cheaper

[Beagle8U]

Salt water and a little unrefined oil.

[Rebelbase]

Open Sea-Worlds in fracking areas.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Desalination costs 4 cents per 10 gallons. That’s $1.68 per barrel.”

Can you explain how you came up with this number? I’m actually looking at desalination for a project I am working on.

[palmer]

"Depending on local energy prices, 1,000 gallons of desalinated seawater can cost around $3 or $4."

https://www.livescience.com/4510-desalination-work.html