This article is part of the Energy.gov series highlighting the “Top Things You Didn’t Know About…” Be sure to check back for more entries soon. 5. Holiday lights have a long, fiery history. Candles were the original holiday lights, posing fire hazards for generations until Thomas Edison created the first electric lighting display for the… Keep reading →
The potential for water scarcity touches several segments of the energy sector, from hydraulic fracturing to hydropower to power plant cooling to growing algae or crops for biofuels. As water needs from the sector rise, this raises the question of how water use in energy should be regulated. Commentators with expertise in various aspects of… Keep reading →
While various wastewater recycling technologies have the same ultimate goal – to give drillers a cost-effective means of reusing flowback and produced water – there is no clear consensus on how to achieve it. Some companies use chemicals, others use electrical pulses. Some see removal of solids as mandatory, some see it as costly and… Keep reading →
As the cost of recycling wastewater falls, it could emerge as the preferred method for addressing many of the water-related environmental concerns surrounding hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing generally requires vast amounts of fresh water. Estimates vary widely, but water used for a fracturing job ranges from 40,000 to 60,000 bbls in the Delaware Basin, according… Keep reading →
The ongoing debate over how and whether hydraulic fracturing poses a threat to the environment covers a whole host of issues – land use, earthquakes, drinking water contamination, methane emissions, and even the sustainability of fossil fuel use. While some issues remain mired in a lack of hard data or fundamental philosophical differences, companies… Keep reading →
