Determining conventional and unconventional oil and gas well brines in natural sample II: Cation analyses with ICP-MS and ICP-OES.

Flowback and produced water generated by the hydraulic fracturing of unconventional oil and gas plays contain a suite of cations (e.g., metals) typically in a high salt (e.

Determining conventional and unconventional oil and gas well brines in natural samples I: Anion analysis with ion chromatography.

Unconventional natural gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing requires millions of gallons of water and generates flowback water, produced water and recycled fluids of varying chemical composition. Ion chromatography (IC) is a relatively low cost and efficient means to determine the anionic composition, however, the wide range in anionic content of these fluids poses a challenge to analytical methods developed for "natural" waters. We report here that the combination of UV and conductivity detectors increased detection sensitivity (e.