Ben Franklin Center identifies shale gas innovations with potential

By Barbara Vergetis Lundin


The Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center has announced the winners of its Shale Gas Innovation Competition.

The two best shale gas innovations related to new products and services or new technologies were:

  • Holding multiple patents on ultra-high performance polymers used by the oil and gas industry, Polymics Ltd. developed a lightweight, reusable, leak-proof mat system that effectively contains mud and fluids during pad construction.
  • The Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute at Penn State University developed a "patch box" system for retrofitting diesel truck fleets utilizing natural gas, addressing a critical transportation issue in the industry.

Although monetary prizes were awarded to the top two finalists, 12 technologies were actually identified.

Rounding out the list of finalists:

• Aither Chemicals developed a process to convert ethane to petrochemicals

• EMS Energy Institute identified a process for converting natural gas to Dimethyl Ether (DME) as a transportation fuel

• Greenways, Inc. developed a flowback water filter press treatment system for shale wastewater

• HydroConfidence developed a hydrocarbon and cement integrity detection for groundwater and the freshwater casing

• J&J Truck Bodies & Trailers developed a patent-pending dust control technology for existing sand equipment

• MicroEnergies developed a Microchannel Fischer Tropsh natural gas to liquid fuel well head application

• OsComp developed a rotary compressor that allows natural gas and NGL to be piped together from the well head

• ProChem Tech International developed sequential precipitation and fractional crystallization treatment of shale wastewater

• Seraph Energy developed an engine conversion system from diesel to all natural gas

• S4 Worldwide developed a mobile real-time site monitoring and security system

For more:
- see the presentations
- visit this website

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