Fracking Goes Waterless -- Rigzone

This is not a new story, but it is one of the longest I've seen on this subject: waterless fracking, being reported by Rigzone:

However, while it is widespread, hydraulic fracturing uses water – a lot of water. Water is becoming increasingly scarce in many regions of the country, including some regions where fracking is common. In recent months, for example, as much as 98 percent of Texas was under a drought, and several other areas of the country are about as dry as Texas. Already, fights over water rights have broken out in Texas and Colorado, and could soon become common as water becomes increasingly scarce.

The Bakken was not mentioned in the article. As mentioned many times at the blog water is not an issue in western North Dakota for fracking. Water is an issue in Texas. 

On average, it takes about 7.5 million gallons of water to frack a well in Eagle Ford, according to the Texas Water Development Board. In the Barnett play, figures run from about 2.7 million, according to Sharma, to as high as 9 million gallons of water, according to Earthworks. The amount per well is determined in large part by the type of geological formation being fractured, and on who is being asked.

By comparison, municipal water usage is significantly greater. The amount of municipal water needed to service the Barnett shale area is 323 billion gallons, Professor Sharma told the University of Texas faculty and students during a June presentation at the Summer Research Internship program.

So, the amount of water needed to frack a well is significantly less than the amount needed for some other uses, such as residential use. However, there is little debating the fact that hydraulic fracturing  uses a lot of water, and in agricultural areas where water is already scarce, that makes for poor public relations. And the problem is expected to get worse. In the Eagle Ford shale play, for example, the amount of water used in fracking was estimated to rise 10-fold between 2011 and 2020, and double again within another decade, according to a study by the Texas Water Development Board and the University of Texas’ Bureau of Economic Geology.

They don't mention all the water golf courses, use, by the way.

Here's the catch: environmentalists probably won't be happy with the alternative:

One leading alternative that is gaining traction with some companies is fracking with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). This technology was developed in Calgary, Alberta by Gasfrac Energy Services a few years ago, and allows fracking to be done with propane, butane or pentane – or mixtures of those gases – as a substitute for water.

Gasfrac initially used propane, but the company now uses butane and pentane, as well. These gases are already found in natural gas wells. The blend can be designed and fine-tuned for the particular flowback characteristics of a given well. Because it does not use water, the LPG technology shows promise as a substitute for hydraulic fracturing, and could possibly reduce the general level of criticism that fracking generates, particularly in dry counties.