article thumbnail

Pitt engineers using membrane distillation to recycle water used in fracking and drilling

Green Car Congress

Engineers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering are using membrane distillation technology to enable drillers to filter and reuse the produced water in the oil and gas industry, in agriculture, and other beneficial uses. The method is already being tested in Texas, North Dakota, and most recently in New Stanton, Pa.

Water 303
article thumbnail

OSU team develops process to clean coal mine drainage and extract rare earth elements

Green Car Congress

In an open-access paper in the journal Environmental Engineering Science , the team reports that the process successfully cleaned clean coal mine drainage while producing rare-earth elements in samples from various rivers across Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Coal mine drainage (CMD) impairs tens of thousands of kilometers of U.S.

Coal 283
article thumbnail

USGS’ first assessment of shale gas resources in the Utica Shale: 38 trillion cubic feet

Green Car Congress

The Utica Shale has a mean of 940 million barrels of unconventional oil resources and a mean of 208 million barrels of unconventional natural gas liquids. The Utica Shale assessment covered areas in Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Click to enlarge. Kirschbaum, M.A., Schenk, C.J., Ryder, R.T.,

Gas 244
article thumbnail

New recycling solution introduced to treat Marcellus Shale flowback frac water

Green Car Congress

a privately held water desalination company in. laden brackish water from Marcellus Shale drilling. Brackish, salty water produced from drilling for natural gas. Services, LLC,” or “CARES,” will recycle brackish oilfield and natural gas wastewater into clean distilled water for future use by the industry. owned landfill.

Water 199
article thumbnail

Duke study finds methane levels 17x higher in water wells near hydrofracking sites

Green Car Congress

A study by Duke University researchers has found evidence of methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction via directional drilling and hydraulic-fracturing technologies. high levels of methane in well water collected near shale-gas drilling and hydrofracking sites. Source: Osborn et al. Click to enlarge.

Water 225
article thumbnail

MIT Researchers Engineer Viruses as Scaffolds for Photocatalytic Water Oxidation

Green Car Congress

Angela Belcher, has engineered a common bacteriophage virus (M13) to function as a scaffold to mediate the co-assembly of zinc porphyrins (photosensitizer) and iridium oxide hydrosol clusters (catalyst) for visible light-driven water oxidation. Angela Belcher.

MIT 207
article thumbnail

Aqueous hybrid-ion battery company Aquion completes $55M financing round

Green Car Congress

The hybrid energy storage device comprises a low-cost, activated carbon anode, a Manganese oxide cathode (MnO 2 ), and an electrolyte consisting of Na 2 SO 4 in water (~1 M). Aquion will begin shipping production units to customers in the first half of 2014 from its manufacturing facility in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

Financing 301