Treatment of produced water originated from oil and gas production wells: a pilot study and cost analysis

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 25; no. 7; pp. 6398 - 6406
• Main Authors: Ersahin, Mustafa Evren, Ozgun, Hale, Kaya, Recep, Kose Mutlu, Borte, Kinaci, Cumali, Koyuncu, Ismail
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.03.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Activated carbon; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Brackish water; Chemical analysis; Chemical precipitation; Cost analysis; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Filtration; Fluxes; Gas production; Granulation; Membranes; Natural gas; Oil and gas production; Pretreatment; Research Article; Reverse osmosis; Seawater; Ultrafiltration; Waste Water Technology; Water analysis; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Water purification; Water treatment; Water wells; Pilot plant; Reverse osmosis; Ultrafiltration; Cost analysis; Produced water
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-017-0961-7

Produced water originated from oil and gas production wells was treated by a pilot-scale system including pre-treatment (chemical precipitation), pre-filtration, and post-filtration units. Pre-filtration unit consisted of sand filter, granulated activated carbon (GAC) filter, and ultrafiltration (UF) membrane. Post-filtration unit included reverse osmosis (RO) membrane unit. In this study, two different RO membranes including sea water (SW) and brackish water (BW) membranes were comparatively evaluated in terms of treatment and filtration performance. Besides, a cost analysis was conducted for a real scale RO membrane unit by using the data obtained from the pilot plant study. Average fluxes of 12.7 and 9.4 L/m 2  h were obtained by SW and BW membrane units, respectively. Higher COD and conductivity removal efficiencies were obtained by SW membrane in comparison to BW membrane. Total cost of 0.88 €/m 3 was estimated for a RO plant treating produced water with a flowrate capacity of 300 m 3 /d.