Dow Water & Process Solutions, a unit of The Dow Chemical Co., and Omni Water Solutions have treated more than 245,000 barrels of flowback and produced water from Texas Eagle Ford Shale hydraulic fracturing operations.

In operation in Karnes County since June, Omni’s HIPPO mobile water treatment unit — which includes both Dow ultrafiltration and DOW FILMTEC reverse osmosis membrane technologies — is being used by another operator in Gonzales County to reduce water hardness and boron, and enable reuse of the cleaned water for drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

The Gonzales County operator has been using an Omni unit in a water recycling project to convert produced water into freshwater, brine, and hydro-carbon streams. The project’s goal is to reduce boron levels from 90 parts per million to less than 5 parts per million in the fresh water stream, so it is compatible with gel frac formulations, and can be reused in subsequent well operations without having to blend in additional fresh water.

The reuse of produced and flowback water is of high significance to oil and gas operators, particularly due to local water shortages and historically dry conditions in the region. Water reuse allows operators to minimize the use and cost of freshwater resources, while reducing complexities surrounding local wastewater disposal and onsite wastewater trucking.