1. POWER ACROSS TEXAS 2015 ENERGY INNOVATION CHALLENGE
Waste to Wealth: Reducing the Water Footprint of the Oil and Gas Industry
Texas Tech Energy Innovation Challenge Team
Ebru Unal
James Urban
Ritesh Sevanthi
Soraya Honarparvar

2. CHALLENGE Water Stress Water Use Social Responsibility Economics
Existing Supply
Limited Demand

3. CURRENT WATER LIFE CYCLE.
Estimated Total Cost
$4.30/bbl

4. ESTIMATES OF VOLUME
Rig counts of 2014 and 2015,used to postulate amount of water available from fracturing in
40 billion gallons will be disposed in the Permian basin in the years Currently only 5% is reused

5. RATIONALE FOR MULTIPLE USE APPROACH

6. CHALLENGES IN REUSE Bacterial Growth Oil and gas residue
ClO2 Disinfection
Bacterial Growth
Oil and gas residue
Cation Interference
Scale formation
API Separators and induced gas flotation unit
ClO2 oxidation and induced gas flotation
Is it going to be an issue?

7. SUGGESTED TREATMENT & COST
To ensure every drop of water is efficiently used
The volume of FPW decreases with the time after a frac job, challenges in single use model.
Aiming at removal of oil fractions, precipitation by oxidation and disinfection.
Chad Knutson and Seyed A. Dastgheib (PI). “Reuse of Produced Water from CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery, Coal-Bed Methane, and Mine Pool Water by Coal-Based Power Plants”; (July 2012)

8. Reuse in Hydraulic Fracturing
POWER ACROSS TEXAS 2015 ENERGY INNOVATION CHALLENGE
Reuse in Hydraulic Fracturing

9. REUSE IN HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
Scale formation
Sulfate Scaling
Carbonate Scaling
Barium sulfate (BaSO4)
Strontium Sulfate (SrSO4)
Strontium Carbonate (SrCO3)
Barium Carbonate (BaCO3)
Calcium carbonate (CaCO3)
Approach:
e-NRTL a concentrated brine solution model under development

10. Modeling results for reusing in hydraulic fracturing
REUSE IN HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
Modeling results for reusing in hydraulic fracturing
The expected solutions are marginally scaling at the temperature and pressure of the formation but easily managed with anti-scalants

11. REUSE IN HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
Cost estimation
Fresh water
Typical cost $0.85/bbl
Treated produced water
Treatment cost for reuse $0.66/bbl
Elimination of disposal cost

12. Legal & public perception
REUSE IN HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
Legal & public perception
Groundwater Rights:
Mineral owner has “Reasonable Use” of surface estate {which includes groundwater}
On-lease operations is reasonable
Off lease use is unreasonable
Alternatives:
Lease agreement or
Rule adoption as reasonable use by Railroad Commission
House Bill 40

13. Used in Cooling Towers for Power Generation
POWER ACROSS TEXAS 2015 ENERGY INNOVATION CHALLENGE
Used in Cooling Towers for Power Generation

14. Feasibility of reuse in power plants
Data from California Energy Commission

15. Modeling results for reusing in power plant
REUSE IN POWER PLANTS
Modeling results for reusing in power plant
The expected solutions are marginally scaling at the temperature and pressure of the cooling water system but easily managed with anti-scalants

16. Cost increase & challenges of reuse in power plants
Increased equipment costs
Data from California Energy Commission
Reduction in Fresh Water Consumption %
Minimal increase in O&M
Airborne particulate issues
Legal issues mirror the ones faced by reuse in hydraulic fracturing

17. POWER ACROSS TEXAS 2015 ENERGY INNOVATION CHALLENGE
Used in Solar Ponds
Due to the high TDS of flow back and produced water, we propose to use that water in Solar Ponds.

18. SALT GRADIENT SOLAR PONDS
Capturing solar energy and storing thermal energy
Applications:
Electricity generation
Industrial process heating
Aquaculture
Desalination
A Solar Ponds is a simple and economical way of capturing solar energy and storing thermal energy within itself.
The amount of heat extracted depends on the applications, it may be for aquaculture, industrial process heating, cooling, drying, power generation, and desalination.

19. SALT GRADIENT SOLAR PONDS
Upper Convective Zone
Non-Convective Zone
Lower Convective Zone
Increasing salinity and temperature gradient
UCZ
A salt gradient solar pond is a type of solar pond, which consists of three layers, upper convective, non convective and lower convective zone. Each layer has its own properties in terms of salinity and temperature.
NCZ
LCZ

20. SALT GRADIENT SOLAR PONDS Salt diffusion and heat diffusion
The most important zone within three layers is the middle Non-Convective Zone. It prevents both Salt and Temperature Diffusions from bottom zones to upper zones. So please keep in mind that the most important zone is the Middle zone.

21. SALT GRADIENT SOLAR PONDS
(Bozkurt et.al., 2015)
And lets talk about the tables. First table shows the properties of each zone for a solar pond which already exists and works efficiently.
Table at the bottom shows the results of our calculations for density and salinity of produced water, and it perfectly matches the middle zone values. We can easily say that the flowback produced water can be used to construct and establish a solar pond.

22. SALT GRADIENT SOLAR PONDS
One of the most important parameters to evaluate a solar pond’s efficiency is of course the solar Radiation, which we have a lot in Texas, especially in Permian Basin. Lets compare 4 different places in the world, Cairo, Riyadh, TX, Permian Basin. As you can see from the graph, monthly solar radiation for each places are really similar, and there are already solar ponds in Cairo and Riyadh working efficiently, so why not in TX, why not in Permian Basin ? (

23. SALT GRADIENT SOLAR PONDS
Actually, there has been a solar pond in El Paso Texas, and used to work for Power generation up to 70 kW. So we propose to use produced water to construct a solar pond and generate energy to decrease energy demand in oil and gas itself or for the local industries.
70 kW power generation in El Paso
15 kW power generation in Australia

24. SALT GRADIENT SOLAR PONDS
Salt Savings from Produced Water
Salt costs: $69,375
Electricity generation costs: $36,792
If we want to talk about the cost of a solar pond, the highest cost belongs to the salt itself, 43 percent of the total cost.
So if we want to built a solar pond with produced water with the same size of the solar pond in El Paso, we can easily save 73,000 dollars.
5.3 $/m2 and 84 $/m2,
(Newel, 1990) (Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator-Bureau of Labor Statistics)

25. SALT GRADIENT SOLAR PONDS
Legal & public perception
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Regulatory and Permitting Process
Texas Interconnection power grid
North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)
Public Perception Concerns
Environmental, Health, Economic, and Social
Public opinion research and public input

26. POWER ACROSS TEXAS 2015 ENERGY INNOVATION CHALLENGE
Used for Anti-Icing
Our last proposed solution is using flowback produced water for anti- icing of roadways in Texas. Texas Department of Transportation uses anti-icing brines to:

27. ANTI-ICING OF ROADWAYS
Creating a chemical layer ahead of the event to:
Prevent freeze bond
Prevent frost or black ice formation
Increase needed response time
Anti-icing chemicals
Liquids (Sodium Chloride & Magnesium Chloride)
Our last proposed solution for reusing flow back produced water is anti-icing.
Anti-icing brine consists of Sodium Chloride and Magnesium Chloride, which their ions are already in the produced water

28. ANTI-ICING OF ROADWAYS
Typical oil-field brine
The major ions in the treated FPW from the Permian Basin were found to be Na+ and Cl-, making it suitable for anti-icing. The quality of oil field brine which has been recently used in the northern states for anti-icing and deicing, is very similar to the FPW of the Permian Basin.
Data from University Transportation Research Center

29. ANTI-ICING OF ROADWAYS
Cost reduction
This similarity of the FPW makes its use a viable option versus disposal. Kauser et.al, also compared the costs of using brine solutions and found a cost reduction of at least 50% when using natural or oil field brines versus using commercial brine mixers. This cost reduction would make FPW a viable option for anti-icing and deicing operations in the Permian Basin.
Data from Iowa Department of Transportation
Cost Reduction by using Flow-back & Produced Water ~50%

30. Legal & public perception
ANTI-ICING OF ROADWAYS
Legal & public perception
Public Concerns:
Vehicle Damage
Effects of runoff
Roadway Deterioration

31. PROPOSED WATER CYCLE

32. POWER ACROSS TEXAS 2015 ENERGY INNOVATION CHALLENGE
Questions

33. Water use & Disposal Estimates
Data from USGS

34. Reuse in Hydraulic Fracturing
Availability of flowback and produced water in Permian Basin
High flowback and produced water level
Total Dissolved Solid (TDS) of flowback and Produced water is 100,000 mg/l

35. Reuse in Hydraulic Fracturing
Environmental concern of large water withdrawal for Hydraulic fracturing
Local water shortage
Change in groundwater and surface water quality and quantity
Aquifer compaction
Aquifer depletion
Increasing bacterial growth
DO we really need fresh water for hydraulic fracturing?

36. Reuse in Hydraulic Fracturing
Thermodynamic Modeling
Aspen 8.4 simulator
e-NRTL thermodynamic model with updated parameters

37. Fracturing a single well with fresh water
On average, a single fracturing job uses 100,000 bbl of water
65% of this water is retrieved as Flowback produced water within first 1year of a frac job
All of which is currently disposed off into a producing zone (EOR) or a non producing zone
Since no specific example was studied, it was assumed all this water is disposed in a non productive zone (-$)
Thus the cost of water over its life (from ground to deep into the ground) comes to be about $4.26/ bbl
Oil and Gas Water Management; “Shale Play Water Management”; (January/ February 2014)