Waterless Fracking Technology Is Said to Reduce Water Pollution

A small Canadian company has developed a waterless form of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas that experts say could prevent some of the pollution problems that have fueled concerns about the controversial drilling technique. Unlike typical hydraulic fracturing technologies, which pump large amounts of water into deep shale formations to extract trapped natural gas reserves, the technology developed by Calgary-based company GasFrac pumps a thick gel made from propane into the ground. Unlike water-based technologies, the gel from so-called liquefied propane gas (LPG) fracturing, or gas fracking, reverts to a vapor while underground before it returns to the surface in a recoverable form. The gel also reportedly does not carry back to the surface the chemicals used in drilling, a problem associated with traditional fracking. “We leave the nasties in the ground, where they belong,” Robert Lestz, chief technology officer for GasFrac told InsideClimate News and the Albany Times-Union. The technology, which is awaiting a patent in the U.S., has been used about 2,000 times since 2008, mainly in Canada. But the industry has been slow to adopt LPG fracturing, because it is more costly and because of a lack of data on the technology’s performance.