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Frontiers of Engineering Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2014 Symposium (2015) / Chapter Skim
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Microbial Ecology of Hydraulic Fracturing--Kelvin B. Gregory
Pages 97-106

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From page 97...
... , and product quality from hydraulically fractured wells. Hydraulic fracturing is discussed from the perspective of water management, including the volume and makeup of fracturing fluids that give rise to produced water microbiology.
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From page 98...
... In terms of content, both flowback and produced water are a mixture of hydraulic fracturing fluid and water present in the formation. The quantity and quality of flowback vary among unconventional oil and gas plays and according to the hydraulic fracturing procedure used.
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From page 99...
... This reuse also reduces both the need for freshwater withdrawals and the costs incurred for transportation and treatment or disposal. Produced water brines are used for subsequent hydraulic fracturing, diluted with a freshwater source, and treated to remove solids and divalent cations before reuse.
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From page 100...
... . Possible Sources of Bacteria It is important to note that next generation sequencing revealed that the anaerobic and halophilic species present in great abundance in the produced water were also present in very low abundance in hydraulic fracturing fluid.
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From page 101...
... FF=fracturing water. 101 fluid; FB1, 7, 9=flowback on days 1, 7, 9; PW=produced water on day 187; SW=source water.
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From page 102...
... MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES IN IMPOUNDMENTS Impoundments for storage of flowback and produced water have robust and dynamic microbial communities that correspond to the geochemistry of the impoundment water. Impoundments receive water and bacteria from a variety of sources, including wells, source water, drilling fluids (Struchtemeyer et al.
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From page 103...
... Sequences depths. Data generated by clone libraries and subsequent sequencing of of rRNA ouswith similarity to Archaea were recovered only from the bottom16s the genes recovered from samples.
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From page 104...
... This organism has been identified in produced waters from conventional development, but is of significance here because it cannot reduce sulfate and instead uses thiosulfate and sulfur as electron acceptors for sulfide production. Because standardized tests for assessing sulfidogenic potential in produced water rely on the numbers of sulfate-reducing bacteria, they will yield false negative reports for sulfide production potential, a risk for the industry.
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From page 105...
... FEMS Microbial Ecology 86:567–580. Murali Mohan A, Hartsock A, Bibby KJ, Hammack RW, Vidic RW, Gregory KB.
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Key Terms

  • produced water
  • microbial ecology
  • microbial communities
  • murali mohan
  • fracturing fluid

  • sulfide production
  • marcellus shale
  • unconventional oil
  • flowback water
  • water management

  • water impoundments
  • shale gas
  • fracturing fluids
  • gas production
  • bacterial communities

  • natural gas
  • produced fluids
  • formation water
  • produced waters
  • subsequent hydraulic

  • gas extraction
  • community changes
  • flowback returns
  • barnett shale
  • wellhead samples

  • hydraulically fractured
  • thermogenic natural
  • product quality
  • management strategy
  • water produced


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