The drilling and hydraulic fracturing of typical gas wells in the Marcellus Shale formation underlying most of western, central and northern Pennsylvania requires nearly 4 million gallons of fracturing fluid per well. Several chemical additives are typically added to the fracturing fluid to aid oil recovery, including additives to reduce friction as the fluid is passed through. The friction reducers allow fracturing fluids and proppant (sand) to be pumped to the target zone at higher rates and reduced pressures than if they were not used. Fluid friction reduction is critical to the effective fracturing process. Generally the friction reducer in common use is polyacrylamide. This water-soluble polymer does not easily degrade in the environment and is considered a toxic contaminant when found in ground water. Outlined herein is a facile method for developing fracturing fluids with additives that are environmentally safe. The key to this technology involves the covalent grafting of additives, including polymers such as polyacrylamide, polyethylene glycol, polyacrylic acid to a nano/micro particulate material. The retention efficiency (amount of polymer grafted material that was retained through a filter simulating shale) ranged from 85-98%, suggesting that the addition of such material prevents its leakage to the water table. Given the need for reduced environmental impact for fracturing fluids, this technology directly alleviates this problem and has massive implications for ‘green’ fracking.

Shale gas fracturing fluids containing additives of low environmental impact

249th National Meeting (2015)

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