ABSTRACT
Shale gas extraction via the process of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (HF) has boosted the worldwide natural gas production from the beginning of this century, and has been altering the global energy markets and leading to a fall in gas and oil prices. Nevertheless, there remain significant environmental risks associated with shale gas production via HF, i.e., atmospheric pollution, water contamination, and common nuisance owing to increasing traffic burden and noise. Particularly, the management of water has become the most challenging and concerning issue of the HF process, which requires large volumes of fresh water and produces huge amounts of liquid wastes with complex composition and variable rates. This chapter focuses on the characterization of HF wastewater and establishment of strategies to achieve minimized environmental effects. Among the current reported strategies, partial treatment and reuse method was considered to be preferred for HF wastewater management when it’s feasible. In addition, cutting-edge techniques, e.g., membrane separation and distillation, mechanical vapor compression, forward osmosis, advanced oxidization, adsorption-biological treatment, and electrocoagulation, will be essential so as to meet the requirements of surface discharge.
