Fracking has not been very popular in recent years.

On the one hand, the extraction of natural gas and crude oil deposits from deeper layers of rock was politically controversial.

On the other hand, the low raw material prices have made it uneconomical.

In view of the reorientation of the natural gas sources in the course of the Russian war against Ukraine, a method developed by the Montanuniversität Leoben could gain momentum.

It is about a process that is intended to enable more environmentally friendly funding.

Michael Seiser

Business correspondent for Austria and Hungary based in Vienna.

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After all, fracking is a controversial mining method: Some see this technique for extracting natural gas and oil deposits from deeper layers of rock – such as shale rock – as a promising future for natural gas production.

Critics, on the other hand, emphasize the environmental risks and see the expansion of the fossil energy base as an obstacle to the transition to renewable energies.

Without harmful chemicals

In the process, a mixture of water, quartz sand and various chemicals is pressed under high pressure into deep layers of rock.

Fine cracks (fracs) are created in the rock, through which the gas or stored oil can flow.

The method is controversial because in conventional use potentially environmentally harmful chemicals are used to stabilize the liquid and maintain its support capacity.

Herbert Hofstätter, head of the Chair for Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Recovery, rejects these concerns for his method.

More than ten years ago, he developed a method at the Montanuniversität Leoben that does not require harmful chemicals and is intended to make the process more environmentally friendly.

Hofstätter says it is a new way of generating clean energy using biological substances without the use of chemicals that are harmful to the environment.

"We have a ready-made concept for this," says the professor at the Montanuniversität Leoben, which, along with Clausthal in Germany, Exeter in England and the Witwatersrand in South Africa and Colorado in America, is one of the most respected educational institutions for metallurgy and petroleum engineering.

Cheaper than conventional fracking

Hofstätter called his alternative to conventional fracking processes "Bio Enhanced Energy Recovery" (BEER), which he describes as pioneering.

Water with potassium carbonate is used as the fluid used to create fractures in the subterranean rock and to transport the proppants, and is pumped into the earth at high pressure.

On the other hand, special proppants such as ceramics, sand or glass beads are used to keep the newly created cracks open.

To ensure that the water has the appropriate flow properties, Hofstätter uses modified starch instead of the criticized chemicals.

There is now renewed interest in the process, both domestically and from foreign companies in North America.

As Hofstätter told the FAZ, the method costs at least a third less than conventional fracking.

This technology could also play a role in the long term as part of the energy transition towards renewable sources.

After all, the process is helpful in tapping the geothermal energy for energy use.