There are many technologies on the market to clean up by-products from oil and gas production. The success of these and the regulations surrounding them are key in the controversy over things like groundwater pollution from hydraulic fracturing etc.. MIOX, a company that specializes in disinfectant systems, recently held a webinar to discuss their Blackwater unit for the oil and gas industry.

The blackwater unit is able to treat water associated with various oil and gas production waste streams including: frac water, produced water, water from enhanced oil recovery, disposal wells and waste water from refineries. Blackwater uses electrolysis technology with water, salt and electricity. This system is effective at treating the water for bacterial content, H2S and other contaminants and allows production sites to recycle water within their system. As MIOX’s Charles Mowrey noted instead of consuming the world’s limited fresh water source this system allows companies to treat and reuse water on site.

MIOX is still testing the limits of their Blackwater unit to try to answer questions like whether produced water could be used as feedstock to “self-clean”. This product offers an interesting alternative for oil and gas companies use of injection well or treatment plant water disposal. And according to MIOX it is cost competitive.

Of course, this does not answer all of the concerns with oil and gas development practices such as hydraulic fracturing, but it does seem to offer an alternative to some of the conventional practices with waste water.