Houston Republic

Gradiant Energy Services' latest technology, Carrier Gas Concentration (CGC), allows oil and natural gas companies to filter and reuse the water utilized in hydraulic fracturing and drilling. 

CGC allows these oil and gas companies to filter out oil, natural gas and chemicals from wastewater used in hydraulic fracturing. CGC heats the water until it evaporates and becomes steam, which then leaves behind all the contaminants. This wastewater would otherwise be injected into saltwater disposal wells underground. 

“A year and a half ago, 50 to 60 percent of our client conversations were about recycling water. Now it’s more about disposal. The amount of produced water is far exceeding the capacity available to dispose it. As such, everyone is evaluating alternative solutions to water disposal wells," Gradiant Energy Services CEO Danny Jimenez told the Houston Chronicle. 

The U.S. Energy Department said the Permian Basin is expected to drill 4.8 million barrels of crude oil a day, which also means it will produce approximately 15 million barrels of wastewater per day. 

“The Permian Basin is essentially a water field with oil in it,” Jimenez told the Houston Chronicle. “Depending on where you’re drilling, you can find high water to oil ratios, even four to 10 barrels of water for each barrel of oil.”

Recycling and evaporation of wastewater drives competitive prices for disposal, especially since they lessen the amount of wastewater being injected into the underground wells. 

“The scope of these problems can be intimidating,” Jimenez told the Houston Chronicle. “The water market in the Permian is driven by the overwhelming amount of produced water and completion jobs that require large volumes of water. All of this is taking place in areas where water is scarce, which brings an added component of complexity in terms of logistics and how to economically handle all those volumes — while making the whole effort sustainable.”

Simmons Energy, a Houston research firm, said Gradiant Energy Services isn't the only company cleaning wastewater. There are at least a dozen others in the Permian Basin area. 

Houston-based Solaris Water Midstream is the largest independent water recycler of the Permian Basin on the New Mexico part of the basin. 

Herb Chambers, the CEO of EVX Midstream, a Houston oil field water pipeline operator, said there isn't just one way to deal with wastewater. EVX has tested several different way to recycle the water. 

“We’re fortunate that our contracts afford us the opportunity to either dispose of water or use other technology,” Chambers told the Houston Chronicle.

Environmentalist are concerned about the new technology to evaporate wastewater and how the water will be used afterwards. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) said it was concerned how this filtered wastewater would be used in agriculture and other industries. 

Dan Mueller with the EDF said the group is concerned that environmental contaminants could be released when the water is evaporated. 

“The questions to be asked and answered are what constituents are present, at what concentrations, and what will be their fate in the released steam,” Mueller told the Houston Chronicle.

Melissa Troutman, Earthworks Research and Policy analyst, said evaporating wastewater can release benzene, cadmium, formaldehyde, hexane and other chemicals into the air. 

“What are the levels of radioactive materials in the concentrated salts in heavy brine?” Troutman told the Houston Chronicle. “My assumption would be that the evaporation process concentrates radioactivity. But, true to form for this industry, radioactive materials are not even mentioned in Gradiant’s case study or flowchart.”

Jimenez said the new technology removes chemicals from the water before it's evaporated, making the process safe. 

“If there is any radioactive material, it stays in the heavy brine as part of the solids, which would be treated as any other radioactive waste,” Jimenez told the Houston Chronicle.