Disclosing water-energy-economics nexus in shale gas development

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Disclosing water-energy-economics nexus in shale gas development

Calderon, AJ; Guerra, OJ; Papageorgiou, LG; Reklaitis, G; (2018) Disclosing water-energy-economics nexus in shale gas development. Applied Energy , 225 pp. 710-731. 10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.05.001. Green open access

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Abstract

Shale gas has gained importance in the energy landscape in recent decades. However, its development has raised environmental concerns, especially, those associated with water management. Thus, the assessment of water management aspects, which inevitably impact the economic aspects, is crucial in evaluating the merits of any project exploiting this energy source. This paper provides a review of the economic and environmental implications of shale gas development around the world. Furthermore, to demonstrate the interplay between the various technical, environmental and economic factors in concrete terms, we report on a specific set of case studies conducted using an integrated decision-support tool that has been implemented to model and optimize shale gas development projects. The case study results confirm that the gas breakeven price decreases with expansion in scale of the shale gas development, i.e. increasing the number of well-pads in the system. However, scale also increases the options for water re-use and recycle in drilling and fracturing operations, which can result in lower freshwater withdrawal intensity. Moreover, under water scarcity scenarios, the choice of well-pad designs that are inherently less water intensive was found to be more cost-effective than water re-use or/and recycle strategies at reducing net freshwater demand. Similar trends were observed when the impact of wastewater quality, i.e. total dissolved solids concentration, on the optimal development strategy of shale gas plays was investigated. The results of these case studies reveal that greater efforts are needed at characterizing freshwater availability and wastewater quality for the evaluation of both the economic and environmental aspects of shale gas development.

Type:	Article
Title:	Disclosing water-energy-economics nexus in shale gas development
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI:	10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.05.001
Publisher version:	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.05.001
Language:	English
Additional information:	This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords:	Shale gas, Water management, Well-pad design, Supply chain economics, Nexus, Integrated decision-support tool
UCL classification:	UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Chemical Engineering
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10062947