A major new opportunity for nonwoven filters in the US is anticipated as a result of increased water treatment and re-use by the fracking industry.
The hydraulic fracturing (fracking) industry already consumes over a billion barrels of water annually, producing 450-500 million barrels of contaminated water for disposal, with only about 14% currently treated and re-used.
With water supplies increasingly at risk, tighter regulations emerging in key states and the costs of disposal on the rise, water treatment and re-use is expected to increase substantially, accounting for 27% of total produced and flowback water by 2020, according to the latest report from Bluefield Research.