Bridging the Water Resources Gap, Investigating Alternatives for Hydraulic Fracturing using Reactive Transport Modeling

Kara Marsac, Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.

Usage Details

Over-extraction of water for hydraulic fracturing is a top risk to the United States' water resources. Within the Permian Basin, an oil and gas basin in Texas, 87% of wells are in areas of high or extreme water stress, and by 2020 it is estimated that 13 billion gallons of water will be used for oil and gas development here. A proposed alternative to freshwater for hydraulic fracturing is saline groundwater, however there is concern that mineral precipitation could reduce permeability. To test the feasibility of this alternative water source, we propose using advanced, numerical reactive transport simulation to understand mineral precipitation reactions that result from natural brines mixing with formation waters in the Permian Basin.