“Water Reuse Challenges and Hydraulic Fracturing” Webinar

Webinar Date: December 4, 2013

Hosted by: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and International Society for Water Solutions 

(ISWS)

Presentation by: Joseph Tinto, GE and Andrew Collier, GE

Introduction

Technically recoverable shale gas resources in US

1 gallon water required per MMBTU produced

Average truck holds 4,500 gallons

Water Reuse Challenges of HF for Shale Gas

Drilling and Production Lifecycle

 Source the water: city water, ponds, lakes, rivers/streams, municipal waste, 

flowback/produced water

 Transport the water: truck or pipeline

The vast majority of water is moved by truck. The average truck holds 4,500 

gallons of water.

See Figure 9: comparison of 2007 vs. 2010 volumes of water transported by truck

(from GE’s presentation)

 Store the water: frac tanks and ponds

 Pump the water

 Hydraulically fracture the well

 Collect the brine: Initial 20-30 days is typically referred to as flowback. 10-30% 

of injected water returns as flowback (range of TDS: 10,000 mg/L – 200,000 

mg/L) Produced water phase produces 5-20 bbl/day (range of TDS: 10,000 mg/L 

– 350,000 mg/L).

 Flowback – stored in temporary frac tanks; trucked from well pad to disposal area 

(e.g., UIC). Some use pipelines to transfer brine, but many regulations against in 

for fear of spills/leaks.

 Produced water: stored in permanent tanks at well pad
Meeting Summary

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“What drives water processing choice?”

 See slide (below) from GE’s presentation that lists the key factors and shows water quality data 

for key US shale formations.

Fayetteville: relatively low TDS (membrane-based solution may be feasible)

Marcellus: relatively high TDS (thermal based solution may be feasible)

GE Water Reuse Technologies

 GE categorizes their reuse technologies into existing solutions and emerging solutions. Within 

existing solutions, they have fixed and mobile systems. Within their emerging solutions are 

membrane distillation and HERO+technologies.

 UOG wastewater reuse in gel fractures may desire ~5,000 mg/L TDS in base fluid, while UOG 

wastewater reuse in slick water fractures may desire between 20,000 and 30,000 mg/L TDS in 

base fluid.

 Existing Solutions: Fixed Systems

o Evaporators are capable of treating waters with TDS of a few thousand mg/L up to 

~150,000 mg/L. The economical range at which to run an evaporator is between 5,000 

and 130,000 mg/L influent TDS.

o 15,000 bbl/day Evaporator – This system creates a waste stream with <100 mg/L TDS 

and clean brine.

o 10,000 bbl/day Evaporator and Crystallizer – This system produces increased volumes of 

recovered water and can produce beneficial byproducts (salt) that can be used in other 

industries (e.g., road deicing).

 Existing Solutions: Mobile Systems

o Mobile systems are moved from site to site via trailer.

o Mobile Evaporator – This system is built to be self contained on a semi-trailer. It requires 

275 kW of power and produces approximately 50-75% recovered water.

 Emerging Solutions: Membrane Distillation
Meeting Summary

Page 3 of 4

o CAPEX/OPEX Treatment – This system is used for high salinity produced water 

treatment and may reduce disposal costs while allowing for increased wastewater reuse. 

GE is working on this system in partnership with memsys (http://www.memsys.eu/).

 Emerging Solutions: HERO+

o This system is capable of treating up to 1 million gallons per day using high efficiency 

reverse osmosis (HERO) to reduce TDS from ~7,500 mg/L to <250 mg/L. GE is working 

on this system in partnership with Encana (in Wyoming).

Question & Answer Session:

Q: What concentration of brine is received in the process?

A: Evaporators will economically handle brine with TDS between 45,000 and 150,000 mg/L. They concentrate the 

brine up to ~300,000 mg/L TDS.

Q: What percentage of TDS comes from additives and what percentage comes from the ground?

A: Almost all TDS comes from the ground (i.e., dissolved minerals). Very little of the TDS comes from chemical 

additives.

Q: How much water is pumped down the wellbore compared to the amount of water that is produced as flowback

and/or produced water in a typical well?

A: This varies per shale play location. Flowback ranges from ~8-10% up to 40% of fluid that returns in the first 30 

days (average is 15-20%). After the first couple days, the flow drops dramatically, so by the end of the ~20 days, 

only 5-20 bbl/day are produced at a given well. A typical fracturing fluid volume is 4.5 million gallons, but the 

volume depends on the number of stages in the fracture and the flow rate per stage. A typical flow rate is 420,000 

gal/stage, which equates to 4.2 million gallons for a 10 stage fracture.

Q: Can you provide specs on the salt byproduct?

A: GE can create NaCl salt that is ~97% pure and CaCl salt that is ~75% pure. The particle sizes range from solar 

salt to rock salt depending on the beneficial reuse market (e.g., road spreading, other industrial processes).

Q: What is the treatment rate for the mobile system?

A: Typically 50 gal/min influent produced water or flowback.

Q: What’s removed from the fluid after treatment?

A: Iron, manganese, TSS, and crude oil are removed from the brine. Clean water has virtually everything removed. 

The constituent arrangement is approximately the same ratio as in the influent. For example, an influent water with a 

TDS concentration of 125,000 mg/L, of which 70,000 mg/L are chlorides results in the same ratio in the distillate 

(i.e., 100 mg/L TDS, with ~55 mg/L chloride).

Q: What are the benefits of small, local installations versus large, regional installations?

A: Economical issue.

Q: Can you talk more about the HERO technology?

A: The HERO technology was developed for ultrapure water in the microelectronic industry. GE is currently going 

through the initial research stages with Encana to treat produced water in Wyoming. The HERO technology is most 

applicable for low TDS waters and the technology can increase water recovery for certain applications. It may result 

in a lower cost of treatment with a higher recovery.

Q: How do SWRO (seawater RO) and BWRO (brackish water RO) work?

A: SWRO operates to 45,000 to 50,000 mg/L and the recovery ranges decrease as the TDS concentration increases 

(e.g., 50% recovery for 45,000 mg/L influent TDS).

Q: Are there any other salts to be removed other than sodium chloride?

A: Yes - calcium chloride, lithium, barite (barium sulfate). The salt removal depends on the market for products.

Q: Have you ever had to meet boron discharge criteria? If so, what was the criteria level?
Meeting Summary

Page 4 of 4

A: Yes – certain areas require low boron. Clean distillate from GE treatment units can contain less than 1 mg/L of 

boron.

Q: What are typical crystallizers that GE uses?

A: Centrifuges are used for larger flows.

Q: What is the difference between flowback and produced water?

A: TSS varies by shale play and within shale plays and also by the stage of water production. Produced water is 

produced when the operator is sending gas into the pipeline and flowback is produced during drilling and initially 

after drilling. Produced Water has higher TDS because it’s in the formation longer than flowback and therefore, 

dissolves more minerals from the formation and picks up more dissolved solids. Typical TDS concentrations in 

flowback are from 50,000 up to 140,000. One exception is the Bakken formation, where TDS is over 200,000 mg/L 

in the first few days after fracture.

Q: When is membrane distillation best used?

A: Membrane distillation is best used to concentrate produced water streams. Concentrated brine reduces disposal to 

underground wells. One good reference is to read about GE’s pilot study (in press) where they are looking to scale 

up (Note: this is an emerging technology). 

Q: Why is freshwater needed - can seawater be used for fracturing?

A: Varies by drillers’ chemistry requirements for fracking shale and by the type of fracturing (e.g., gel fracture, slick 

water fracture). Seawater has very high concentrations of barium which causes scale build-up in wells.

Q: For membrane distillation treatment of UOG wastewater, what are typical waste heat sources on site?

A: GE recommends using mechanical vapor recompression to recycle. The systems are not setup to do waste heat 

operations unless using waste heat is used to generate steam first and then to run the systems on steam.

Q: What is used to remove hydrocarbons in UOG wastewater?

A: This depends on the quantity of hydrocarbons. Some options include: skimming with a separation tank, a hydro 

cyclone, or a combination with filters (e.g., walnut shell, cartridge).

Q: Close to 100% of the waste material comes from minerals from fracturing – do additives impact water treatment?

A: Yes, they do impact water treatment, but most are removed in pretreatment clarification (i.e., before thermal or 

membrane technology)?

Q: How do emerging technologies reduce energy consumption?

A: This is always a criterion for advancing technologies. GE’s key metric of success is that the system is viable for 

customers and reduces their operating costs. Exact data are unknown because research is ongoing.

Q: Are regulatory standards for road salts problematic?

A: Several properties are regulated: barium, NORM, impurities listed in 40 CFR 40, etc. You would need to look at 

specific state regulations to know the depth of the regulations. 

Q: How are radioactive contaminants disposed of?

A: The 2 major contaminants in dilute form in UOG wastewater are Ra-226 and Ra-228. You need to be sure you 

can contain NORM in limited quantities that do not exceed regulatory amounts. In most areas, there’s never been a 

UOG wastewater that has reached hazardous levels of NORM – for handling or disposing. Issues comes with: 

pretreatment (taking suspended solids that may contain NORM) and dewatering (i.e., concentrating NORM). For 

standard press operations in pretreatment (e.g., plate and frame press) ~45% by weight material content moisture 

levels are probably safe.

GE (combined with NETL) has researched NORM in produced water applications. Certain GE technologies can 

handle NORM. Various resin materials can pull radium out and it can be disposed of in a TENORM site (i.e., 

hazardous waste site – a few of which exist in TX and out west).