frac water treatment Archives - Tetra Technologies, Inc

“The introduction of noble inventions seems to hold by far the most excellent place among human actions.”
— Francis Bacon, 1561–1626

Invention as a Fundament of Civilization

Civilization is driven by technological innovation. From the invention of writing to the printing press to today’s internet and smart devices, the things we invent change not only our world but how we conceptualize the world and solve problems. Consider, for example, how the advent of the personal computer has shaped how we talk about the brain, memory, and neurological circuits. Even logical reasoning is the product of combining two inventions in antiquity: divination and writing.¹

The esteemed science historian James Burke defines invention as the art of “bringing ideas or objects together in a novel way to create something that did not exist before.”² Invention is not only the life-blood of technology, it’s also vital to the advancement of problem-solving and finding better ways to perform crucial tasks. In other words, while we tend to associate invention with the things we use, it also applies to the ways we work, like the Japanese 5S method, for example.³

Portfolio Expansion through Invention

TETRA was founded in 1981 to serve the completion fluids market by addressing each customer’s unique challenges with tailored solutions—a principle based on judicious research, development, and invention. Our portfolio has since expanded and now includes not only completion fluids and additives but also various products and services for water management, flowback, production testing, filtration, wellbore cleanout, brine reclamation, and diverse grades of calcium chloride for applications in the energy, agricultural, road construction, dust-control, and food & beverage industries.

Addressing customer challenges with targeted research, development, and technological invention is the domain of our TETRA Innovation Group (TIG), a team of Ph.D. scientists and technicians. And while creativity at TETRA is certainly not confined to the TIG, it is this group that is perhaps most guided by the art of judicious invention.

State-of-the-Art Laboratories and Technical Support

Home for the TIG is our 26,000-square-foot research and development laboratory and technology center in Conroe, Texas, which TETRA established in 1996, as well as a second laboratory in Aberdeen, Scotland. Both facilities are outfitted with state-of-the-art lab equipment and support the Company’s many domestic and international service centers.

Every day, TIG personnel provide an enormous range of technical services, from completion and specialized fluid testing and frac-water analysis to analytical tests like GC-mass spectrometry, particle-size analysis, ion chromatography, and scores of other specialized procedures in support of fluid formulation, wellbore cleanout, brine reclamation, water management, filtration, and production testing.

Pioneering Industry Firsts

In addition to providing daily technical support, the TIG boasts an impressive record of industry firsts, key patents, and product innovations that have won awards and become benchmarks for performance, efficiency, sustainability, and environmental protection. Among just a few of its pioneering innovations are:

our family of TETRA CS Neptune^® completion fluids, our zinc-free, cesium-free high-density, monovalent and divalent fluids that are formulated with readily available ingredients, environmentally safe, and capable of doubling as reservoir drill-in fluids;
our TETRA Advanced Displacement System (or TADS), a 3-phase drilling-fluid displacement system that yields excellent wellbore cleanout;
our complementary displacement chemicals TETRA FlocCB and TETRA FlocZCB; and
our TETRA OilFix™ filtration service and TETRA O-Lok C™ treatment, which remove or reduce oil and grease levels in brines

Forging the Future

Looking ahead amid the accelerating pace of the global transition to more renewable sources of energy, TETRA is now embarking on commercialization of its latest product, PureFlow high-purity zinc bromide for use in zinc-bromine flow batteries. TETRA PureFlow ZnBr₂ clear brine fluid is produced using our patented process originally developed for formulating halide brines, but further refined to yield a high-purity ZnBr₂ that is ideal for the exacting standards of zinc-bromine flow batteries. Our TIG personnel are also exploring carbon-capture technologies.

As the world heads to the halfway mark of the twenty-first century, freighted with both optimism and uncertainty about the technologies that will power the future, one certainty that remains solid is the TETRA commitment to innovating through the art of judicious invention. We don’t just follow the technology; we help pioneer and lead with it.

^[1]See Giovanni Manetti (1993), Theories of the Sign in Classical Antiquity, as well as Walter Ong (1958) Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason, and Ong (1982), Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word.
^[2]James Burke, “Invention,” Britannica (website).
^[3] The 5S method is a means of organizing a work space for maximum efficiency and effectiveness; 5S stands for: seiri (整理), seiton (整頓), seisō (清掃), seiketsu (清潔), and shitsuke (躾), translated as sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain.

Water Treatment: The (Very) Early Years

With the advent of hydraulic fracturing, the storage, treatment, and maintenance of large volumes of water have steadily evolved into a major component of jobsite operations. Frac-water is typically stored in either above-ground tanks or, more commonly, in-ground ponds (or water pits) outfitted with liners. There is, however, a challenge to storing large volumes of water.

Ancient civilizations figured out centuries ago that water stored for the long term becomes unsuitable for human use, though they knew nothing about the science of water-borne pathogens. In fact, wine is likely the first water treatment invented by humans. In the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean Region, water for consumption was typically cut with wine because its alcohol level (slightly above the 10–14% of modern wines) was almost precisely at the point that kills bacteria, thus rendering the water safe.

Bacteria: Not Just a Potable Water Problem

Like potable water, frac-water also must be properly treated to prevent bacterial growth. With the ability to proliferate at a rapid pace, bacteria will reduce sulfates in the water, thereby creating hazardous hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) gas as well as iron sulfide solids. The latter can severely damage the porosity of a reservoir and consequently diminish production if pumped into a well.

The Necessity of Water Storage Management

Despite the potential for bacterial growth, properly managing frac-water storage ponds is an often-undervalued component of operations. In truth, proper pond management is a sound preventative measure that requires minimal investment and typically entails treating the water with a biocide, aeration, and a chemical to promote solids separation. Neglecting pond management will invariably lead to costlier remediation down the road.

The TETRA Water Storage Management Guidelines

Water Treatment

The first step of pond management is water treatment, which begins with determining the levels of dissolved oxygen (DO), oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), an organic compound that fuels the growth of living cells like bacteria. An initial shock treatment of sodium hypochlorite (bleach) is then applied, which is typically 12.5% by volume but will vary depending on the level of ATP. Next, a long-term treatment with dimethyl dialkyl ammonium chloride (DDAC) provides additional disinfection as well as solids separation. Each treatment should also be accompanied by aeration to thoroughly mix the water and chemical additives. If a pond lacks an aeration system, a transfer pump can be used to ‘roll’ the water.

Weekly Maintenance

Each week, a technician should record the pond’s level, temperature, and appearance, as well as collect samples from four equidistant points along the perimeter. Common descriptors of appearance include clear, milky white, opaque white, tinted green, tinted brown, and black. The weekly log should also note whether the pond has been aerated (or ‘rolled’) at or around the time of sample collection.

Analysis of Water Samples

Water samples should be analyzed each week to determine the DO and ORP levels. If ORP drops below 50 millivolts, then the sample should be further analyzed to determine the ATP level. Otherwise, samples for ATP analysis can be collected every two weeks instead of each week. If the ATP level exceeds 10,000 picograms per milliliter, a 30-parts-per-million (ppm) dosage of 80% active DDAC should be applied to maintain water quality.

Pond Aeration

The most effective means of aerating a large pond is to use a subsurface aeration system to introduce diffused air directly into the water. Unlike surface aerators and fountains, subsurface aeration creates the most air-to-water contact, circulation, and mixing, and causes the least evaporation. As noted above, if the pond lacks an aeration system, then a transfer pump may be used to ‘roll’ the pond, but this is not ideal.

Aeration is typically conducted once or twice every 24 hours, depending on the water temperature and local weather conditions. Warmer climates may require running the aeration system continuously, but caution should be exercised here because too much air can cause the pond to become turbid. TETRA recommends maintaining a minimal DO level of 2–4 ppm to prevent bacterial growth; higher levels are preferrable if they can be maintained.

Tag: frac water treatment

The Art of Judicious Invention