Engineers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering are developing a new way to clean fracking wastewater for reuse, according to Tech Xplore.

Membrane distillation technology can treat highly contaminated wastewater, enabling drillers to filter and reuse the produced water in the oil and gas industry, agriculture and more.

“It is of critical importance to develop alternative strategies for the management of produced water that would reduce the overall cost, allow recovery of valuable resources, and reduce the environmental footprint of this industry,” said Radisav Vidic, professor and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who is leading the project. “Right now, the industry is not being presented with financially feasible options. This project proves that those options can and do exist.”

Learn more: Tech Xplore > Engineers develop method that can recycle water used in fracking and drilling