Chemical and Materials Research

While fracking has produced cheap natural gas in the US, it has also increased competition for water, which is in short supply across many parts of the country. The process — injecting a high-pressure mix of water, sand and chemicals into rock formations to release natural gas — uses vast amounts of it. A single well can use between 65,000 gallons and 13 million gallons of freshwater. This has led to new regulations that focus on water conservation as well as an increased focus on treating and recycling fracking wastewater. Click Here to Know What are the New Technologies About half of the freshwater used in fracking is recovered as “flowback,” or water that flows back to the surface along with natural gas. The process also yields produced water, which contains massive amounts of brine. This wastewater mixture is difficult and expensive to treat, which is why it is typically injected deep underground. Regulations are limiting deep well injection of produced water, currently very common...