Next steps and social impacts. The team members will work on disseminating the knowledges acquired in this work package to industrial, local government and public to ensure people understanding the potential environmental impacts in shale gas industry. Public perception has been identified as a major obstacle in shale gas development, but the majority of public are unfamiliar with it (Xxxxxx et al., 2016). The team members will participate in public events, such as in library, museum and science in pub, to raise public awareness. Workshops with industry and governments will be held to make the knowledges useful for productions and policy-making.
Next steps and social impacts. From the perspective of energy sources, shale gas could play a crucial role in the next future of Europe because it “can be a possible substitute for more carbon intensive fossil fuels, an indigenous source of natural gas reducing dependency on non-EU energy suppliers” [9]. However, a safe and environmentally sound development of this process is necessary in order to manage this energy by minimizing any undesired side-effects. Along these lines, our research was planned and carried out in order to design green and innovative frac-fluids able to reduce the environmental footprint by using only environmentally-friendly compounds for the extraction of the shale gas from European formations. The achieved scientific findings could turn in a benefit for both the society and the environment, especially from the perspective of a reduced chemical contamination of the soil and the groundwater. Moreover, the use of green and friendly compounds in the formulation of frac-fluid helps to improve the perception and the image in the eyes of the public opinion. A clear and transparent communication can be the key to bring people closer and make them more familiar with this energy source and the procedures related to its extraction. For these reasons it is important to carry on the research with the aims of improving the different fluid formulations, with the replacement of other additive with their green alternatives (i.e. antimicrobial agents, crosslinkers, corrosion control agents, etc.), of further reducing the NORM extraction, and of designing new formulations able to cover a wider range of properties and match with a broader types of rock formations.
Next steps and social impacts. The results have been and will be published in scientific journals, presented at conferences and meetings, used in lecturing and made public in social networks. The team members will use them in their daily scientific and commercial work. The industrial partner will incorporate the results in their business workflows. The results will be the basis for another EU funded project, namely S4CE (Science for Clean Energy, Project Number 764810), where the routines developed here can be used to understand and predict seismic hazard and related permeability evolution. The results will help to better plan and optimise projects not only in shale gas exploitation but also conventional and geothermal applications.
Next steps and social impacts. The team members will continue in the development of the zeolite synthesis and characterization of prepared materials to better understand their adsorption/separation properties. In addition, they will continue to disseminate the knowledges acquired in this work package to other colleagues and students in the frame of Symposia/Workshops and teaching courses at the Xxxxxxx University. Presentations for some industrial partners are also envisaged.
Next steps and social impacts. The models developed in this project have proved to be a valuable tool to help the designers to take the best decisions in all the aspects related to the water utilization in shale gas exploitation. With an approximate forecast of evolution of the flow and the physicochemical characteristics of the shale gas wastewater it is possible to use the proposed models to take the best decisions about the water treatment(s) needed (including pre-treatment options and water desalination alternatives). Besides, the water management model can be used for determining how much fresh water is needed, when and where acquire that water, when start and end the hydraulic fracking of each well, with which crew, what is the size of the fresh and waste water tanks, when and how much water must be reused in other xxxxx (or even in other wellpads) when and how much waste water treat, etc. The optimal results show that: It is possible to reduce the costs of the water desalination systems maintaining the close to ZLD philosophy. The correct coordination of fracking scheduling with water reuse allows reducing the freshwater consumption and therefore all the costs and environmental impacts related to acquisition, transport and treatment. The models developed are flexible enough to be used in virtually all situations (USA, Europe, China, etc.). Their major drawback is the quality of the information needed (i.e. it is expected that the forecasts in the well-known exploitations in USA produce better results than those in Europe). In relation with this drawback, the next step consists of extending the model to deal with uncertainty in the most important parameters mainly the flow (e.g. optimal actions to take if the flow of flowback water is lower than expected and there are no water enough to fracture the ‘next well’). Additionally, the cooperation in all the water management activities between companies working close each other (sharing transport, storage, reusing water between well-pads, etc.) has also a large potential. Some preliminary results have shown important reductions in total costs (an environmental charges) with benefits for all the parties. Application of Cooperative game theory concepts has proved to be a promising way of dealing with this problem and it is currently under development.
Next steps and social impacts. The models developed can be incorporated in a general methodology evaluating various environmental, safety and economic risks of shale gas projects. In terms of physical hardware, blowout risk-prediction capabilities can be enhanced through the use of bottom- hole detection systems to prevent gas kicks. The methodology developed can be recommended for safety assessment of shale gas production facilities to ensure safe design and minimal risks to personnel and population.
Next steps and social impacts. Future work in this area will entail, performing uncertainty analysis to understand how variation in input parameters can impact the model prediction. Currently the models are set-up in a one-dimensional framework but the dimensionality could be increased for increased sophistication and the ability to model the heterogeneity of the reservoir and the characteristics of known faults from seismic surveys. Negative public perception to induced seismicity is a potential hazard for sub-surface energy operations with numerous international projections having been suspended, delayed or curtailed because of local public opposition. Both the public and policy makers hold misconceptions about induced seismicity and these coupled with a lack of knowledge may influence risk and benefit perception of sub-surface energy technologies. A technically robust, transparent and balanced dialogue between industries, regulators, the public and other stakeholders can help to resolve misconceptions and risk perception issues. The developed computational models for risk assessment that are capable of predicting the conditions of the injection reservoir could be an important component in facilitating this dialogue. The research is also expected to contribute to the minimisation of induced seismic risks.
