Accurate Mass Analysis of Hydraulic Fracturing Waters
Oral Presentation
Prepared by C. Marvin1, E. THurman2, I. Ferrer2
1 - Agilent Technoloiges, Inc., 2850 Centerville Road, Wilmington, DE, 19808, United States
2 - University of Colorado, Department of Environmental Engineering, Center for Environmental Mass Spectrometry, Boulder, CO, 80302, United States
Contact Information: [email protected]; 302-636-8423
ABSTRACT
Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) extracts oil and gas by forcing fluids into oil and gas rich shale deposits. The fracking fluids contain a mixture of proppants (sand), surfactants, biocides, inorganic salts, and other compounds intended to facilitate release of the trapped gas. A combination of UHPLC followed by LC/Q-TOF-MS was used to detect suites of polyethylene glycol compounds (PEGs) that occur in flowback water samples from hydraulic fracturing. The Kendrick Mass Defect was applied to differentiate the various adducts within a suite of PEGs. A database of the accurate masses along with their retention times by UHPLC has been designed in order to enable rapid and accurate analysis of either groundwater or flowback samples from hydraulic fracturing. Forty PEGs and their various adducts and multiply charged ions can be identified in less than 2 minutes of computer time.
Oral Presentation
Prepared by C. Marvin1, E. THurman2, I. Ferrer2
1 - Agilent Technoloiges, Inc., 2850 Centerville Road, Wilmington, DE, 19808, United States
2 - University of Colorado, Department of Environmental Engineering, Center for Environmental Mass Spectrometry, Boulder, CO, 80302, United States
Contact Information: [email protected]; 302-636-8423
ABSTRACT
Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) extracts oil and gas by forcing fluids into oil and gas rich shale deposits. The fracking fluids contain a mixture of proppants (sand), surfactants, biocides, inorganic salts, and other compounds intended to facilitate release of the trapped gas. A combination of UHPLC followed by LC/Q-TOF-MS was used to detect suites of polyethylene glycol compounds (PEGs) that occur in flowback water samples from hydraulic fracturing. The Kendrick Mass Defect was applied to differentiate the various adducts within a suite of PEGs. A database of the accurate masses along with their retention times by UHPLC has been designed in order to enable rapid and accurate analysis of either groundwater or flowback samples from hydraulic fracturing. Forty PEGs and their various adducts and multiply charged ions can be identified in less than 2 minutes of computer time.
