Reducing the Environmental Impact of Hydraulic Fracturing by Improved Effectiveness of Pumped Fluid and Proppant

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Unconventional, low and ultra-low permeability oil/gas formations require well stimulation to allow practical and economical production. This process of well stimulation has become known as "hydraulic fracturing" or "fracking." The recovery factor, as the percent of the oil or gas in place that is being recovered, is relatively low. Most of the oil or gas in place is left unrecovered and thus requiring larger and larger operations and creating larger environmental impact of the large-scale operations. Although industry desires to improve the recovery factor for both economic and environmental reasons, this has not been possible. This Workshop is intended to develop a vision for major breakthrough. A major breakthrough would reduce the wasted hydraulic fracturing effort and reduce the associated environmental impact. Focusing more directly on reducing the wasted hydraulic fracturing effort to increase the recovery factor and reduce the environmental impact requires visionary innovative thinking. The current operating mode of near-term cost reductions for producers and improving margins for services companies may not facilitate visionary, innovative thought. This Workshop is to be a rallying of university, industry, and National Laboratories engineers and scientists to define what understandings are adequate and what unknowns require further research, engineering, and field testing. The potential eventual impacts could result in very significant reduction of environmental consequences of fracking.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.