Hydraulic fracturing is a well stimulation method that is used to extract oil and natural gas by drilling wells and pumping fracturing fluids at sufficient pressures to create fractures within the formation. Following the fracturing process, a large portion of the fracturing fluid along with water that exists within the geological formation (produced water) will return to the surface. These waters are often hypersaline and contain high levels of dissolved organic carbon, hydrocarbons, and a suite of organic chemicals that are found in the fracturing fluids. Managing these wastewaters is one of the greatest challenges facing hydraulic fracturing, especially since deep well injection is the most common management strategy. Therefore, alternatives are necessary, including the treatment and reuse of these water resources. As such, this research focuses on utilizing suspended biological treatment to remove dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH). Both suspended aerobic and anaerobic treatment methods are being utilized before and after coagulation-flocculation (FeCL<sub>3</sub> and powder activated carbon) to assess the ability of these two treatment trains (Coag/Floc-to-Biological vs. Biological only) to remove the parameters of interest. Coagulation-flocculation has been shown to be effective at removing suspended solids and some contaminants in wastewaters, and since this wastewater contains an abundance of suspended solids along with a mixture of known and unknown contaminants, coag/floc might provide an ideal pre-treatment. Comparing biological treatments using the pre-treated or non pre-treated wastewater could provide insight into potential treatment trains, and the necessity of coag/floc as an upstream pre-treatment method.

Biological treatment of flowback water from a hydraulically fractured well

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.