简介：HBC 系统公司是由水务技术创新公司（HTI）和Bear Creek 服务公司联合成立的，旨在研究页岩气开采中水力压裂的水强化处理问题。

HBC Systems, a newly created joint venture between Hydration Technology Innovations (HTI) and Bear Creek Services (BCS), is setting its sights on the water-intensive process of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for shale gas production. The company's Bear Creek Green Machine is reportedly the first energy efficient system for recycling the millions of gallons of fresh water used daily in fracturing jobs industrywide.

The Green Machine incorporates HTI's proprietary forward osmosis membrane technology. Forward osmosis is an equilibrium process in which water passes from one chamber to the next by diffusion until the solids concentration on both side of the membrane are equal. Unlike reverse osmosis processes which rely on the application of high pressure to essentially squeeze water from a solution, forward osmosis uses a solution with high osmotic potential to draw water through a membrane from a solution with low osmotic potential, according to HTI. The membrane rejects organics, minerals, and other solids that may be present in the wastewater, and allows water molecules to pass through.

The Green Machine packages this technology in a portable and scalable reclamation system that processes water at rates exceeding 100 gal/min. This allows operators to reclaim their wastewater for reuse, rather than forcing them to transport and dispose of contaminated reserve pit water. In addition, it reduces the need to source and transport additional fresh water to a well site.

HBC estimates that not only will this result in less damage to the environment, but it will also save drillers millions of dollars in water and transportation costs. Field tests have shown that the system can reclaim more than 125,000 gallons of wastewater using less than 20 gallons of diesel fuel; conventional transportation to disposal wells would require 20 truckloads to carry this volume of water. The company estimates that the system may save nearly 1 million gallons of water per well, equivalent to a travel reduction by diesel water trucks of as much as 150 loads per well.

HBC conducted initial market testing with the first Green Machine in 2009 for E&P companies drilling for natural gas in the Haynesville Shale, northern Louisiana and east Texas. These tests, aimed at reclaiming reserve pit water left behind from fracking, were successful, prompting HBC to begin full-scale implementation of Green Machine units nationwide. Two machines are fully operational and HBC plans to add and deploy additional units to other shale gas markets, including the Marcellus Shale, which stretches from Virginia to New York, and the Barnett Shale in Texas.

For more information, visit www.htiwater.com .