Hydraulic fracturing or fracking has come under fire lately. The process involves fracturing rocks by pressurized fluids to release petroleum, natural gas, coal seam gas and other substances.

Fracking is considered to be potentially dangerous to the environment because some of the fracking liquid is left in the ground during the extraction process which could lead to water contamination. The Environmental Protection Agency released on December 8, 2011 a draft analysis of its investigation into the contamination of water well in Wyoming. The report showed a link between the contamination of drinking water wells in Pavillion, Wyoming and the natural gas wells drilled by Encana. This sparked a vicious debate between environmentalists who want to ban the activity and those who advocate continuing fracking activities.

In the wake of the controversy surrounding hydraulic fracturing or fracking, a tech company announced a new way of getting natural gas using sunlight that could even clean wastewater and lessen the need for fracking.

"Even though the United States has vast natural gas resources, a majority of these reserves are only accessible through fracking, a potentially environmentally-hazardous process that many environmentalists claim could contaminate our water supplies and the air we breathe," said Tim Young, CEO of HyperSolar Inc. in a press release. "Rather than extracting difficult-to-reach fossil fuel reserves, we think that the focus should be on alternative technologies that can provide the world with affordable and clean sources of energy. We believe it is far better to consider sources of energy that are renewable instead of limited depleting resources such as coal, oil or natural gas."

HyperSolar's technology is inspired by the photosynthetic processes used by plants to create energy. The company will use a nanoparticle system that will extract hydrogen from water. The nanoparticles contain a semiconductor material that generates an electric charge when sunlight hits it. The electric charge drives the chemical reaction to form hydrogen and oxidizes water. The hydrogen will then be combined with carbon dioxide to form methane, the primary component of natural gas. The methane can be delivered using the existing natural gas delivery infrastructure.

The company plans on installing rows of inexpensive reactors on vacant land. HyperSolar has applied for a patent on its process.