Shale Gas Process and Supply Chain Optimization

Abstract

In recent decades, large-scale production of shale gas has been considered as a major issue in the U.S. energy industry. In accordance with its great economic potential and environmental concerns, shale gas process and supply chain optimization has become one of the most popular research areas. In this chapter, we provide a comprehensive overview of the supply chain management and process design problems in shale gas industry. We summarize four major research challenge areas, namely the design and planning of shale gas supply chain, water management in hydraulic fracturing, sustainability concerns in shale gas industry, and design and optimization in shale gas processing system. We further provide review and discussions of the major publications corresponding to each of the aforementioned topics. Potential opportunities in the shale gas system are presented as well to illuminate the future research.