DEHS fall retreat December 5, 2013 - Fracking with Dr. Larry Wackett

Dr. Larry Wackett Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics spoke on the Fractured Debate on Fracking.

Shale Plays in the lower 48 United States   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_gas_in_the_United_States

US oil production bottomed out in 2008 but has now increased due to a process known as fracking. The deep (2-4 mile) horizontal wells allow extraction of crude oil and natural gas in areas previously unavailable for removal.  Currently, there are approximately 80,000 fracking wells in the US.  The map above shows the available shale plays with deposits of oil and natural gas.  Fracking operations will also be increasing around the world.

http://legalectric.org/f/2013/10/fracSandOperations.jpg

While fracking does not occur in Minnesota, the state along with Wisconsin does provide very high quality sand used in the fracking process.  The uniform spheres are the best proppant available to allow for gas and oil to be removed from the horizontal fractures in the well.

The water use in a fracking well is heavy.  One fracking well will use the amount of water  needed to fill ten Olympic sized swimming pools.  The water is injected then removed from the well and placed in settling ponds.  Most fracking operations attempt to recycle the water using chemical treatment and filtration.

Dr. Wackett's group has been experimenting with bacteria that breakdown a broad spectrum of chemicals commonly found as contaminants in fracking water.  Instead of just adding the bacteria to the solution, the bacteria are encased in permeable silica mesh or silica filters.  The bacteria mobility is restricted and they do not reproduce but instead digest the chemicals.  In 20 minutes a bacteria can digest a chemical mass equivalent weight of the bacteria.  He is looking to develop at least four types of bacteria to breakdown several classes of chemicals including benzene, alkanes, alcohols and polycyclic aromatic compounds.

At present, a similar process has been commercially used to breakdown Atrazine for water treatment in Iowa.  The researchers have been attempting to interest companies in field studies to take the experiment out of the laboratory.  His lab maintains the Biocatalysis/Biodegredation Database to assist others interested in biodegredation.

Parker Abbot's Summary of a previous lecture by Dr. Wackett on Fracking

Dr. Wacket's lab has also developed an enzyme test for detecting melamine