Shale Gas a Boon to Clean Water Technology

As law­mak­ers debate new gas drilling reg­u­la­tions, and more Penn­syl­va­nia res­i­dents com­plain about tainted water sup­plies, the water purifi­ca­tion indus­try is expe­ri­enc­ing its own boom. Forbes reports today on a study by the Artemis Project, which takes a look at the com­pa­nies work­ing on devel­op­ing new tech­nol­ogy that would clean frack­ing water.

The new report from the Artemis Project, “The Mar­cel­lus Effect,” eval­u­ates how these promis­ing com­pa­nies are turn­ing this oppor­tu­nity into a prov­ing ground for solu­tions that could make them new lead­ers in the water industry.

The intense com­pe­ti­tion in the shale gas drilling mar­ket will have wide-reaching impact for the water indus­try as a whole. From this lim­ited, niche mar­ket of shale gas drilling, we pre­dict a new breed of prod­uct solu­tion will emerge.

Hydraulic frac­tur­ing, or frack­ing, uses mil­lions of gal­lons of water per well to extract gas. The water con­tains chem­i­cals going down, and it flows back up with addi­tional salts, radi­o­log­i­cal mate­ri­als, and heavy met­als. With all that waste­water, there’s lots of money to be made in clean­ing out the salts and heavy met­als. A report by Global Water Intel­li­gence says more than $3 bil­lion dol­lars a year could be spent on shale gas waste­water treat­ment and disposal.