Treatment processes for hydrofracking wastewater

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The objective of this research is to improve the performance of separation processes that have been developed for the treatment of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing (aka hydrofracking), a drilling process for extracting natural gas deposits from shale rock formations. There is a significant amount of public concern over the pollution risks associated with the quality and quantity of the wastewater that is produced via hydrofracking. Kontek is interested in developing treatment systems that are sufficiently robust, versatile, and flexible such that they can properly handle the large variations in water quality that occur at different well sites. This variation poses a significant challenge since currently there is no clear understanding of the underlying scientific problems that limit the performance of conventional treatment processes. Thus, the existing treatment practices rely on heuristics instead of rigorous engineering analyses and are sub-optimal from both a technical and economic perspective.