To tap the vast potential of the Marcellus Shale, producers and operators must overcome a daunting challenge: managing the water that comes back after hydraulic fracturing operations. Producers, operators, service companies and universities are rushing to address the issue.

Chemical company Reef Services, LLC., is developing green chemicals. "Our goal is to allow the fracturing company to pump its frac job down a well and have everything in it be considered a green product," says President and Chief Executive Officer Clay Baten.

"A big fear of hydraulic fracturing is contaminating the water supply with the frac itself," he observes. "I do not know of any instance when that actually has occurred, but it is a concern of some states such as Pennsylvania, and even in the Barnett Shale, whenever you are near population centers."

"By having a green technology, we ease that potential problem." he says.

But the green additives have an economic impetus as well. "Our goal is to save dollars on reusing fracturing fluid," Baten says. "Right now, operators have to dispose of the fluid or try to reduce the amount of contaminants in it so they can use it in another frac. By using green technology, we are hoping to make that water much easier to use in other jobs."

With green additives in place, the concern becomes the chlorides from the formation, Baten says. "To reuse chlorides is not an issue; we have developed products that can make salt-water easier to use in a frac," he notes.

In developing the technology, Baten says Reef has gone beyond regulatory standards or expectations. To illustrate, he points to the company's goal for its green fiction reducer, which will extend the portfolio to cover every major additive. "People will tell you that if the monomer level on the return is between 100 and 300 parts per million, the reducer is considered a green product. Our goal is to get below 100 ppm."

Solids Seperation

In addition to inventing chemicals, Reef has been acquiring companies with promising technology. These include Chemical and Consulting Solutions, which Baten says uses proprietary chemistry and hydrocyclones to separate ultrafine solids from liquids. For operators, he says, it offers a way to remove sources of scaling such as carbonates and sulfates that is quick, efficient, compact, and manpower-free.

"When I first saw the process in action a year ago, I was amazed at the speed at which the chemical worked and how it worked," Baten recalls.

The demonstration was administered by Patrick Bair, CCS's founder, Baten says. "He got a sample of dirty fluids that weren't settling out," Baten relates. "He put a very, very small amount of his chemical in half a gallon of water, poured that from one bucket to another, and it totally separated."

Not only that, he continues, "[Bair] poured the water off and the solids were totally dehydrated in a couple seconds," Baten recounts, adding that Bair's client had been using nine hydrocyclones before Bair made his product available. "They were able to turn eight of them off," Baten reports.

According to Bair, the chemical/hydrocyclone combination removes 99.9 percent of all solids between minus 325 mesh to collodial. To deal with larger solids, companies need only dissolve them before sending them through a hydrocyclone, he says.

"We are able to bring those solids out in a granular form, so that they won't go back to their previous state, which is kind of an amorphous, muddy mess," Bair says.

In addition to making the waste easier to move, the granular form allows it to be reused as part of a roads or fiber-optic cable trenches, Bair reports. If there is no market, companies have yet another option, he offers. "In British Columbia, they keep the product on their property and build mountains. They are grading it and planting trees. They have a forest growing there," Bair reports.

By Colter Cookson, The American Oil & Gas Reporter.