Removal of Dissolved Organics From Flow Back Waters Using Swellable Organosilica

The American Public Power Association estimates 14,000 permits for hydraulic fractured gas wells will be filed in PA, OH, NY and WV by 2016. Each of these permits will result in fracture operations needing 150,000 -1 million barrels of water. Frost and Sullivan, the market analysis firm estimates approximately 120 million bbl of water will have to be used in fracturing operations annually through 2025 to fully exploit the available and desired natural gas. A reasonable estimate is that 30% of this water, 40 million bbl, will return to the surface as flow back water. Flow back water contains a significant amounts of dissolved solids, chemical additives, and in late stages, hydrocarbons from the formation. ABSMaterials is developing water treatment system that removes organic contaminants from flow back water for recycling or reuse. The system can be used alone or to create treated feed water for membrane systems that can remove dissolved solids. The technology is based on Osorb, a patented swellable nano-engineered material with the ability to capture up to 8 times its weight in organics via reversible swelling. In Phase I of the project, a skid-mounted 4 gpm and trailer-mounted 60 gpm fluidized bed system were fabricated and tested with major oil service companies on the ABSMaterials campus. Results showed that & gt;95% organics were removed including hydrocarbons and surfactants. In addition, we began work to expand the use of Osorb to capture of metal ions from flow back water. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will convert pilot scale systems to treat flow back water to commercial-scale manufactured units. In Phase II, the 60 gpm pilot scale system will be enhanced and tested at several sites in North America to refine our system. In addition, a second larger ~250 gpm pilot system will be built as part of this project as the first prototype of a manufactured commercial system for field operations. It is anticipated that a system that can continuously operate and treat flow back water for $6-7/bbl will be achieved in 24 months. Key focus areas will be engineering and Osorb regeneration methods.