Rockets, industrial foams may solve fracking's water woes, lawmakers told

E&E News
By Katherine Ling
June 11, 2014

Technology that helps launch weapons and rockets may be the key to using almost no water when companies seek to crack rocks to find oil and natural gas -- the process known as hydraulic fracturing.

Water is a significant risk during "fracking." It can cost a company a few million dollars for treatment and disposal of the water used in production and is the focus of ongoing regulatory proceedings and public criticism that may lead to further cost uncertainties.

Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) has repurposed its technology created for the U.S. space program and missiles, which promises to cut down on the infrastructure, water and cost traditionally required for the pumps and trucks used in fracking, Cary Ralston, vice president and general manager of ATK's Missile Products Division, told the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources in a hearing today.

Propellant sticks are ignited to create a gas that cannot escape because it is covered in about 1,000 cubic feet of water that already exists in the bore hole from drilling, according to Ralston. The pressure from the gas cracks the rock and then burns off, leaving only "naturally occurring gas" in the well to be siphoned off and sold, Ralston said.

The technology has been used in over 600 wells across 11 states and four countries and has been shown to double production at lower pressures, with some variation depending on injection wells, re-stimulated wells, and deeper and longer horizontal wells, Ralston told the committee. Further testing and more data is needed to increase consistency and variations in geology, Ralston said.

Subcommittee Chairman Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) noted that deepwater drilling has been compared with "landing on the moon." But innovations have a short life in the oil and gas industry, and he voiced concern that federal regulations may hinder the innovation process, which one witness from the oil field service provider Baker Hughes Inc. said could be as short as 18 months.

"Our industry faces development life cycles similar to those in the hypercompetitive mobile phone business," said James King, Baker Hughes' vice president of unconventional completions.

Air Liquide Industrial LP, a bulk gas provider for automotive, chemical, food, metals and a wide array of other industries, is applying its technology of "gas liquids," or foams made with nitrogen or carbon dioxide, to fracking. Foams may alleviate problems in difficult formations such as those in clay -- where water causes the soil to swell -- or where water blocks the pores in some rock formations, said Donald Stoicovy, vice president of oil and gas and industrial gas services at Air Liquide.

Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), ranking member of the subcommittee, said that these innovations that help clean up fossil fuels are important but added that the nation must move on to "innovative policy and solutions that will enable us to overcome our dependence on carbon-intensive energy and move to a cleaner, sustainable energy future rather than retreating to our energy past."

Holt noted the fiscal 2015 spending bill passed earlier this week in the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee significantly cut the research budget for clean energy and instead would "double down on yesterday's energy," increasing fossil fuel spending.