Ohio State conducting wide range of shale-related research

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Researchers study ecological health, sustainability and biodiversity, including groundwater, surface water, air/soil quality.

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Ohio State University engineer-researchers have begun focusing their expertise on the shale energy industry in Ohio.

With the industry growing at a rapid pace in Ohio and around the country, Ohio State aims to produce research that can help inform policymakers, industry leaders and the public.

“The shale energy industry is moving very quickly, and there’s not really much science behind what’s happening and what impact it can have, good or bad,” said Zuzana Bohrerova, coordinator of the team and research specialist and associate director of Ohio State’s Ohio Water Resources Center.

The university formed a research cluster with a $50,000 seed grant from the university’s Environmental Sciences Network in October 2012. The team, the Shale Environmental Management Research Cluster, has attracted about 30 Ohio State faculty members from four colleges across the campus, including the Colleges of Engineering, Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), Public Health and Arts and Sciences, in addition to researchers from outside the university.

All of the Ohio State faculty in the research cluster are also part of the university's Subsurface Energy Resource Center (SERC), established in 2011 to provide research and policy guidance in the shale arena. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio had 215 horizontal wells drilled and 85 producing in 2012. Many more could be on the horizon: The department has now issued more than 998 drilling permits since 2010, a number that grows weekly. While not all permits will lead to producing wells, the department projects that the state will see markedly increased production as pipelines are installed and processing plants are completed.

“There is a lot of misinformation and a lot of fear that does not have a lot of science behind it. We want to work on getting more data, so there can be responsible decision-making around shale issues,” Bohrerova said.

Collectively, Ohio State researchers have applied to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy for nearly $13 million in funding for six multidisciplinary studies involving ecological health, sustainability and biodiversity related to shale development.

Paula Mouser
Paula Mouser
Paula Mouser, assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering at Ohio State, has already received NSF funding for three projects. In one study, she is examining the fluid and rock characteristics that affect fluids deep underground. Her lab is measuring density, viscosity and biodegradation potential of the fluids used in the hydraulic fracturing process and those that return to the surface as flowback. As part of this research, she is collaborating with Dave Cole, professor of earth sciences and director of Ohio State’s Subsurface Energy Materials Characterization and Analysis Laboratory, to determine the permeability and porosity of Marcellus shale samples. Knowing these characteristics will help researchers understand the risk of fluid migration, using a model being developed by her collaborator George Pinder at the University of Vermont.

In a second NSF-funded project, Mouser is working with collaborator Desiree Plata at Duke University to identify the organic compounds present in hydraulic fracturing fluids.

“We’re looking at how fast these compounds degrade in the subsurface, from shallow groundwater aquifers down to deep subsurface brine reservoirs,” Mouser said.

In collaboration with researchers at Ohio State and West Virginia University, Mouser was recently awarded NSF funding to examine the microbial biodiversity found in deep underground shale formations. In the first study of its kind, researchers will use a metagenomics-based approach to examine microbial life and function in a rarely examined habitat: kilometer-deep black shale, a critical component of the U.S. energy portfolio.

With support from the Sloan Foundation Deep Life Observatory, Mouser is also tracking the dynamics of microorganisms going into and coming out of shale gas wells. Her observations to date indicate that only a few groups survive the hydraulic fracturing process because of the high temperatures, different chemical conditions, high salinity and high pressures encountered in the deep subsurface.

“Certain bacteria can wreak havoc on well infrastructure by producing scale products, corroding the wells or clogging the pore spaces in the deep subsurface,” Mouser said. “That’s why understanding the ecology and metabolic potential of microorganisms residing in these fluids is important.” She suggests that the oil and gas industry could reduce maintenance costs and improve gas recovery efficiencies by understanding how to reduce growth of detrimental bacteria.

“Microorganisms may also be beneficial to the environment by degrading some of the chemicals that are used in the hydraulic fracturing process so they don’t move to shallower aquifers and pose a risk to drinking water resources,” she said.

Other engineering faculty members are working on or have recently completed shale-related research projects.

How land use changes involving shale development could impact stream systems

Jon Witter
Jon Witter
Jon Witter, research assistant professor in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, studies how changes in land cover and land management impact water quality and quantity. The watershed could be affected when drill pads are constructed, roadways leading to drilling sites are built, and swaths of land are cleared for pipeline installation, Witter said.

“The water, the sediment and the nutrients it contains will run off differently, and that can impact both how much water gets in the streams and the quality of that water,” Witter said.

“So, it could have a profound impact on the water resources that are so important to the region. Fortunately, though, there are many best management practices to mitigate these issues, but they may need to be adapted for this specific purpose and setting.”

How nanotechnology could be used to treat hydraulic fracturing wastewater

Shaurya Prakash
Shaurya Prakash
Shaurya Prakash, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has already completed a project on using nanotechnology to remove salt from water, developing one of the smallest and most energy-efficient desalination units for seawater through a project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. Now, he wants to investigate use of the technology on wastewater resulting from the hydraulic fracturing process, which, he said, poses a unique challenge due to the composition of the wastewater and will likely require new technologies for treatment to make water available for reuse.

“We need to look at the composition of the water and determine the constituents including any harmful materials,” Prakash said. “Then, we need to clean the water for reuse in the most environmentally friendly way, for the lowest cost possible.” 

Prakash recently received an NSF grant for developing a portable nano-pump to test a novel approach for removing electrically-charged contaminants from water. Such an approach may be helpful in treating hydraulic fracturing wastewater, which contains such contaminants. 

How new technologies can reduce the impact of contaminants from hydraulic fracturing

Linda Weavers
Linda Weavers
Linda Weavers’ interests lie in the fate of contaminants in the environment. “It’s related to some work I’ve done in the past with coal byproducts from coal-burning power plants,” she said. “The shale products are heavy metals, and there’s a lot of organics as well as inorganics from fracturing fluids that are being used. What can we do with these byproducts? What can we do to reuse them? How can we reduce the risk to ecosystems and to humans?”

Weavers, professor of civil, environmental and geodetic engineering, is also interested in working on new technologies and processes to remove contaminants and reducing the volume of water disposed underground via injection wells.

Other researchers across the university are investigating issues such as how land use changes involving shale development could impact stream systems, how to remediate the soil and environment after shale development and if accidents occur, how drilling operations could affect wildlife health, and how shale development could affect surface water quality and forest ecosystems.

Learn more about shale related research at Ohio State.

Based on an article by Martha Filipic, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

 

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