GE Global Research - Principal Investigator: James Silva
Objective: The overall project objective is to develop a cost-effective process to recover distilled water and a salable salt product from Marcellus frac water. The first goal is to develop a pretreatment process that removes NORM, particularly 226Ra, from frac water and enables disposal of a NORM-concentrate in an environmentally responsible manner. The second goal is to develop a brine concentrator based on membrane distillation (MD) that is suitable for Marcellus frac water desalination and is significantly less capital cost-intensive than currently available evaporators. The emphasis of both objectives is that pretreatment and brine concentration may be accomplished in mobile facilities. It is anticipated that crystallization will occur in a central treatment facility. Successful execution of this project will reduce the cost and environmental impact of hydrofracturing.
Period of Performance: January 27, 2012 to January 27, 2014
