Shale Gas and Wastewater treatment

01/12/2010 14:16:05

November 30: PPEKO CTO, Pawel Pietraszek, PhD led conference organized by the main polish newspaper "Rzeczpospolita" "Shale gas as a new element of the energy market."

The conference was organized under the patronage of three ministries: the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economy. Among the invited guests were representatives of these ministries, companies involved in exploration of gas shale (eg, PKN Orlen, PGNiG), lawyers, and technologists. Most of the participants of the seminar expressed the belief that shale gas is a great opportunity for Polish, and any problems associated with its exploration and eventual mining will be compensated. However, in his speech, Dr. Eng. Pawel Pietraszek - not denying that shale gas could become a valuable source of future energy in Poland - expressed serious concerns about the environmental cost of extracting this material. In his view, environmental protection arc gas drilling, can mean higher costs of production and profitability of this business to put this technology to obtain the gas in question. A major problem may be particularly wastewater. In Poland, there are currently authorized studies on the real problems associated with the formation and disposal of waste that will arise during the exploitation of shale gas. The information in this regard from the United States and Canada should raise concern. - Waste water from the wells by. analysis of the U.S. contain extremely high concentrations of salts (chlorides, salts of calcium, magnesium), very high suspension, high concentrations of barium, strontium. Amount of wastewater of this type are in a U.S. average of 2000 m3/dz single borehole. The discharge of such waste water into rivers without any complicated purification technology in Polish conditions is not possible - Pope Paul Pietraszek. In his opinion, a company engaged in the latest technologies for wastewater treatment are able to offer effective solutions, but they can significantly reduce the economic viability of shale gas acquisition in our country. - It seems advisable that at the stage of preliminary work to address the problem of this kind of treatment. This will allow you to estimate the real economic conditions for the gas and avoid the problems of social and environmental risks in areas where shale gas exploitation will be carried out - said the expert representing the PP-EKO.