When we wrote last week about technologies to mitigate water demands during hydraulic fracturing, we knew we’d find more examples of energy innovation for the simple fact that there’s a lot of innovating going on. Here’s a little bit about two other advances in the area of fracking waste water, as well as another company’s initiative to make the development of Canada’s oil sands cleaner and greener.

Halliburton says it has a suite of solutions to reduce the demand for fresh water in hydraulic fracturing operations, called H2-Forward. You can read more about it, here. Basically, it’s a process that allows drillers to reuse fracturing fluid. Halliburton:

"The service includes new technologies such as CleanWave service that is used to process fracturing flowback and produced water, r... more »

The Energy Department's natural gas/hydraulic fracturing subcommittee is out with its draft report. Here's the takeaway line from the document's executive summary:

"The Subcommittee shares the prevailing view that the risk of fracturing fluid leakage into drinking water sources through fractures made in deep shale reservoirs is remote."

Certainly, the panel had lots to say about standards and practices, protecting the air, surface wastewater containment, transparency and safety - all important - but the sense here is that Americans' chief concern is whether "fracking" threatens their drinking water. Indeed, that's the main claim of people who oppose natural gas as a breakthrough energy source, as well as the technique that has revolutionized its development.

The subcommittee's conclusion:... more »