OriginOil’s algae harvest technology removes 98% of hydrocarbons from frac flowback

In California, OriginOil reports that, in recent independent third-party testing, the company’s algae harvesting process was able to remove 98% of hydrocarbons from a sample of West Texas oil well ‘frac flowback’ water in the first stage alone. Frac flowback describes water used in a drilling process called ‘hydraulic fracturing’, or ‘fracking’.

This test sample was taken from an oil well from which 200,000 gallons of oil-rich water flowed back over a period of two weeks. The water resources firm PACE Engineering supplied the sample and analyzed the results

According to OriginOil, Greentech Media states that energy companies pay between $3 – $12 to dispose of each barrel of produced water.