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Green Technology for Biological Control of Marcellus Shale Hyrofracture Waters Shale Gas Innovation Contest Ben Franklin Technology Partners May 7, 2013. Timothy Keister, CWT , Chief Chemist ProChemTech International, Inc. 51 ProChemTech Drive Brockway PA. Marcellus Hydrofracture.
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Green Technology for Biological Control of Marcellus Shale Hyrofracture Waters Shale Gas Innovation Contest Ben Franklin Technology PartnersMay 7, 2013 Timothy Keister, CWT , Chief Chemist ProChemTech International, Inc. 51 ProChemTech Drive Brockway PA
Marcellus Hydrofracture The Marcellus Shale is the largest natural gas development in North America • Each gas well requires 4 to 10 million gallons of biologically controlled water per hydrofracture • Current biological control technology uses various hazardous, persistent chemical biocides Marcellus Deposit Outlined in Blue
Use of Toxic, Persistent Chemical Biocides for Biological Control of Hydrofracture Water is a Major Environmental and Safety Hazard ProChemTech International, Inc. has developed an electrolytic technology that provides a safe, low cost environmentally acceptable means for biological control of hydrofracture water “ElectroBrom”
Oral Toxicity of Biocides Used in Hydrofracture Water Chemical Name Oral Toxicity LD 50 Rat Glutaraldehyde 134 mg/kg Dibromo nitrilopropionamide 510 mg/kg Dazomet 519 mg/kg Isothiazolin 57.2 mg/kg ElectroBrom precursor 20,500 mg/kg
Aquatic Toxicity of Biocides Used in Hydrofracture Water Aquatic Toxicity Typical Biocide Name LC 50 Trout Use Levels Glutaraldehyde 56.2 mg/l 125 mg/l Dibromo nitrilopropionamide 2.3 mg/l 55 mg/l Dazomet 0.16 mg/l 60 mg/l Isothiazolin 0.14 mg/l 200 mg/l ElectroBrom precursor > 3,000 mg/l 45 mg/l
How It Works Passage of a high amperage, low voltage direct current through an aqueous salt solution produces a solution of “Electrolytic Bromine” which consists of bromine hypobromous acid hypobromite
Effective Biological Control Electrolytic Bromine is a very effective product for biological control and has been used by ProChemTech for many years in cooling tower systems One cooling tower system at the Sky Harbor Airport, Phoenix, AZ, has a flow rate of 11,000 gpm and has been biologically controlled using electrolytic bromine as the only biocide since August, 2012.
Environmental Impact Electrolytic bromine degrades under typical environmental conditions in a matter of hours to harmless bromide ion Bromide ion is found in sea water at 65 mg/l Bromide ion is also found in flowback and production wastewaters at 400 to 1700 mg/l
Hydrofracture flowback and production wastewaters typically have a conductivity exceeding 200,000 mmhos ProChemTech electrolytic bromine units use an aqueous mixed sodium bromide and chloride feed precursor solution with a conductivity of 40,000 mmhos We believe that hydrofracture flowback and production wastewaters can be used as feed solution to our electrolytic bromine units
Materials Cost Comparison Based on four day hydrofracture job with a flow rate of 4,200 gpm, 1.2 mgd total each day 20% dibromo nitrilopropionamide $9,900 50% glutaraldehyde $23,500 1.5% isothiazolin $27,000 electrolytic bromine (production WW) $0 electrolytic bromine (new precursor) $2,850 ElectroBrom power and cell $700
Current Technology ElectroBrom EB 60 cost for noted hydrofracture job = $70,000
Patent Status US Patent 7,927,470 issued April 19, 2011, for the monolithic graphite electrolytic cell used in our electrolytic bromine generators US patent application 13/075,272 application pending for method of graphite impregnation