The founder of clean tech research firm, Kachan and Co., Dallas Kachan says that, "There's a feeding frenzy." And that many manufacturers and sellers of technologies that may not even apply to the energy sector are "rushing to retool their products for the high visibility, high growth fracking, and oil-sands markets."
Natural gas is now in a position to be nearly half of the national fuel mixture by the year 2030. That number, according to the United States Energy Information Administration, is up 23 percent from 2009. The increase is not due to the shale-gas deposits, but rather, because of the fracking needed to get them.
Boutique research firm, Lux Research expects that the market for fracking-related water treatment will increase nine-fold-to $9 billion-in 2020.
The process of fracking produces a certain amount of wastewater, and it is this wastewater that has the potential to earn some tech companies some serious zhing.
"Flowback" water is the water that remains after the injection process, and "produced" water may be injected by the rock fracturing from within the shale deposit.
The waters, according to Lux analyst Brent Giles can be, "toxin-laced brine that can be more than six times as salty as the sea."
Perhaps mixing saltier water into salty water doesn't sound like such a horrific thing, but soon, companies will be scrambling to create innovative ways of disposing of and reusing the wastewater.
Previously, the wastewater was moved from the fracking site to be kept in inject-able wells, underground. However, the recent growth in northeastern Marcellus shale-gas field, ranging from parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York don't have as many available sources of storage. The water has to be treated and reused.
Giles says that the wastewater shows "a water treatment challenge on par with the most difficult industrial wastewaters."
Lux estimates that fracking needs 25,000-140,000 barrels of water per well. Of the more than 3,000 wells drilled in the Marcellus field, Kachan estimates that they produce about 15,000 gallons of water.
The cost of treating the wastewaters vary from well to well, depending on how deep they are drilled and what the quality of the shale is.
CEO of OriginOil, a biofuels company that now offers frack water treatment, Riggs Eckelberry says that wastewater handling at similar oil sites costs 11-22 cents a gallon.
However, in some other shale-gas fields, like the Barnett field in Texas, water may not always be readily available. In this field, and the Rocky Mountain region, fracking water requires groundwater aquifers or rivers that have been claimed for another purpose, like for water crops or drinking water. So, according to experts, treatment will become a high priority, and therefore, probably very expensive.
This article was written by Jennifer Nobles. Jen is a promoter of good business and solid financial advice. She believe that strong finances, possibly with the help of a Financial Advisor, can help people tremendously and smart investing is the real path to securing a fruitful and stable future.
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