Drought Conditions Out West Are Causing Businesses to Compete for Water
If water is the new oil, what are drought stricken regions to do? What are their water-intensive industries to do?
Duke University
Cogeneration Continues to Make Inroads
If an application filed this week is approved, a $55 million, 21 MW CHP project on the Duke University campus will increase energy efficiency and cut carbon emissions by 25 percent.
Fracking Accounts for 1% of US Industrial Water Use
Water used in fracking makes up less than 1 percent of total industrial water use in the US, according to a study by Duke University. Energy companies used nearly 250 billion gallons of water to extract unconventional shale gas and oil from hydraulically fractured wells in the US between 2005 and ... Read more »
Radioactive Contaminants Found in Coal Ash
A Duke University-led study shows the presence of radioactive contaminants in coal ash from all three major US coal-producing basins. The study found that levels of radioactivity in the ash in the Illinois, Appalachian and Powder River basins were up to five times higher than in normal soil, and up ... Read more »
Water Conservation Projects that ‘Value Nature’ Are Good for Business
Water conservation projects that “value nature” can help improve business decision-making and risk management — while saving companies money — according to a new study published in the journal Ecosystem Services. The research was conducted as part of the Dow Chemical Company and The Nature Conservancy’s multi-year collaboration to help ... Read more »
Water Harvesting Pond to Save Duke $400K Annually
An on-campus water harvesting and reuse pond under construction on the Duke University campus in Durham, North Carolina, could supply up to 143 million gallons of harvested storm water per year — nearly 75 percent of the demand of one of the university’s centralized chilled water facilities — and save the ... Read more »
Sports Venues Eliminate 34,000 Tons of CO2
Sports venues that installed LED lighting from Ephesus Lighting have eliminated 34,000 tons of C02 from being emitted into the atmosphere, the LED manufacturer says. This represents a savings of about 45 million kW of energy. Ephesus Lighting estimates that by Earth Day 2016, the company will have saved sports ... Read more »
Faulty Wells — Not Fracking — Polluted Water, Study Says
Defective wells, not hydraulic fracturing, is the primary cause of water contamination from shale gas extraction in parts of Pennsylvania and Texas, according to a study by Duke University. Using noble gas and hydrocarbon tracers, researchers analyzed the gas content of more than 130 drinking water wells in the two ... Read more »
Exporting US Coal to Asia Could Cut Emissions
Exporting US coal to power plants in South Korea could lead to a 21 percent drop in greenhouse gas emissions compared to burning it domestically, according to a Duke University-led study. The superior energy efficiency of South Korea’s newer coal-fired power plants would offset the large amount of emissions produced ... Read more »
Acid Mine Drainage Can Clean Up Fracking Wastewater, Duke Study Says
Much of the naturally occurring radioactivity in fracking wastewater might be removed by blending it with another wastewater from acid mine drainage, according to a Duke University-led study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. While fracking wastewater and acid mine drainage each pose environmental risks, blending them can ... Read more »
Fracking Chemicals Didn’t Contaminate Water, DOE Says
A study on hydraulic fracturing shows no evidence that chemicals from the fracking process contaminated drinking water aquifers at a Pennsylvania drilling site, the Energy Department told the Associated Press. The study, by the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh, is still ongoing. It’s the first time a drilling company ... Read more »
Arkansas Groundwater ‘Not Contaminated By Fracking’
A Duke University study of wells near shale gas drilling sites in Fayetteville, Ark. shows no groundwater contamination. Low levels of methane found in samples were mostly from biological activity inside shallow aquifers, not from shale gas production contamination, scientists concluded. Previous Duke studies of the effects of shale gas ... Read more »