Fracking industry seeks biodegradable polymers - Danimer

30 March 2012 02:52  [Source: ICIS news]

ARLINGTON (ICIS)--The oil and gas industry is looking at biodegradable polymers to help supplement or replace classical fracturing fluids, a senior official from US-based bioplastic producer Danimer Scientific said late on Thursday.

“There is an unaddressed challenges existing in hydraulic fracturing,” said Blake Lindsey, the president of Danimer Scientific.

“We have been asked by the oil and gas industry to develop biomaterials and the driver here is for these extraction process not to have negative effect on the environment,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey was speaking at the BIOPLASTEK forum held at Arlington in Virginia on 28-30 March.

Danimer said it has developed a controlled degradable biopolymer material where proppant is embedded, and the polymer is pumped, into the fracture. Proppants are particles usually mixed with fracturing fluid to hold fractures open after a hydraulic fracturing treatment of the well.

The polymer is then degraded into viscous gel and washed away with water leaving the proppant placed effectively in fractures.

Danimer Scientific's new biopolymer allows for more efficient use of oil and gas wells while at the same time reduces the environmental impact on fracturing.

By: Doris de Guzman
+1 713 525 2653

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