Fracking Water Treatment | Hydraulic fracturing | Water Treatment and Recycle | Water Treatment | Waste Water Treatment Guide
Hydraulic fracturing (also called fracking) involves pressurized injection of a liquid consisting of water, sand and chemical additives into the ground. The fluid injection creates fissures or cracks in the underground formations and forces release of oil and gas that would often not be recoverable by other means.
What is Fracking Water Treatment?
Fracking Water Treatment is defined as the treatment of wastewater which generates from the extraction of oil or gas activities.
Such extraction activities undergoes stringent regulations for treating wastewater with the help of fracking operations so as to make water comaptible enough to be reused in several other applications. Rising demand to treat water required for hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling so as to avoid the contamination of groundwater is expected to drive the growth of the global market in future years.
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Hydraulic Fracturing Wastewater Treatment System
The actual process uses multiple steps and several different chemicals. The chemicals will change depending on the company doing the fracking and the characteristics of the formation. In addition, each company has steps that are proprietary, so very little information is available on the chemicals used.
When the pressure from fracking is released, some of the fluids pumped into the well flow back to the surface. In addition to this “flowback” water, naturally occurring (produced) water also flows to the surface. After a short while, natural gas or oil will also flow. With time, the amount of injected water flowing back decreases while the produced water flow increases. A typical frack will use 3–5 million gallons of water and about 1/3 of the water injected will return to the surface.
With all of these variables there is no way to predict water quality and it will change rather quickly for the first two weeks of flow. After two weeks, the majority of the flow is produced water which is regulated differently than frack water.