Ohio University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment (ISEE) was recently awarded $2 million in federal and state grants to support research to clean wastewater that results from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
The money was granted by the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) and the Ohio Third Frontier.
RPSEA awarded $1.9 million to fund ISEE’s project Cost-Effective Treatment of Flowback and Produced Water via an Integrated Precipitative Supercritical Process, according to a news release.
The rest of the money came from the Ohio Third Frontier, the OU Russ College of Engineering and Technology, and the OU Technology Transfer Office.
“ISEE is composed of different research centers and laboratories on campus all working on sustainable energy practices to minimize damage to the environment,” said Jason Trembly, associate director of the Ohio Coal Research Center and principal investigator for the project.
All research for the project will be completed within the Russ College of Engineering and Technology. The project will continue for 24 months, and Trembly hopes that after that two-year period, the research will continue on a larger scale.
During the duration of the project, Trembly and other researchers will create a prototype that will help to treat wastewater so that the water can be reused, Trembly said.
“Fracking has recently become a problem, because now we have the ability to drill horizontally across shale and coal, which opens up a lot more surface area to extract materials from the ground,” said David Bayless, mechanical engineering professor and director of the Ohio Coal Research Center.
Bayless said the process of fracking involves injecting high-pressure water into the seams to extract materials, but contaminates the water leaving it highly polluted in the process. That makes the water very difficult to transport and dangerous to surrounding communities, he said.
Trembly’s research involves treating the water to make it sanitary without transporting it, making it safer for the community and the environment, Bayless said.
“I am excited to see the project get underway,” Bayless said. “This is a big problem that needs to be addressed, especially in Ohio.”
Ben Stuart, civil engineering professor, is also excited for the project to begin.
“I think that it is great that we are coming full circle to use education to inform and give back to the Athens community by giving them a safe and healthy environment to live in,” he said.
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