Big advancements in wastewater treatment could be coming
from an unexpected source: the oil and gas industry.
The growth of fracking
brings with it a heavy demand for water, and that's straining water supplies,
often in drought-prone areas. The conflict over water has fueled adoption of
new water reuse and recycling techniques, making the fracking market a valuable
new proving ground for these technologies – which could later be used in other
industries.
The fact that water treatment companies can find willing customers,
even just to test their products in industrial settings, is significant. Many
cleantech ventures have failed because industrial customers, such as electric
utilities, are slow to adopt new technologies in the absence of regulatory
pressure. One practice that's advancing thanks to the oil and gas industry is
the use of distributed water treatment facilities that can be trucked from site
to site.
There are several treatment approaches to increasing recycling,
including chemical processes, and what's most important is that the more those
get used or scaled up, the cheaper they become for other industries.
Nevertheless it is to say that the actual volume of water recycling happening
in fracking fields is relatively low, and one clear winning technology – one
that can enable a large amount of water reuse economically – has yet to emerge.
Costanza Gabbrielli