Integrating membrane distillation with waste heat from natural gas compressor stations for produced water treatment in Pennsylvania

Abstract

Direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) has immense potential in the desalination of highly saline wastewaters where reverse osmosis is not feasible. This study evaluated the potential of DCMD for treatment of produced water generated during extraction of natural gas from unconventional (shale) reservoirs. Exhaust stream from Natural Gas Compressor Station (NG CS), which has been identified as a potential waste heat source, can be used to operate DCMD thereby providing economically viable option to treat high salinity produced water. An ASPEN Plus simulation of DCMD for the desalination of produced/saline water was developed in this study and calibrated using laboratory-scale experiments. This model was used to optimize the design and operation of large scale systems and estimate energy requirements of the DCMD process. The concept of minimum temperature approach used in heat exchanger design was

Water and Wastewater Treatment Systems by Novel Integrated Membrane Distillation (MD)

“…Lokare et al [114] investigated the synergies and potential of DCMD for wastewater treatment produced during gas extraction from unconventional (shale) reservoirs in Pennsylvania (PA).…”

“…A comprehensive cost evaluation of a 111 MWe solar power tower (SPT) plant integrated with the DCMD system was investigated by Soomro and [114,175]. The average freshwater production by the proposed MD system was evaluated up to 40,759 L/day with a cost of $0.392/m 3 .…”

Bicontinuous and cellular structure design of PVDF membranes by using binary solvents for the membrane distillation process

“…Following the disciplines outlined above, we have selected four solvents for PVDF membrane fabrication by TIPS method, the parameters of which were listed in (8)(9) and DOP (5.3), DOA (4)(5) and DOS (<4) demonstrated a great difference in polarity. Therefore, the poor compatibility between PVDF and the other three solvents were characterized and listed in Table 1.…”

“…4 Among the membrane materials applied in the MD process, semi-crystalline polyvinylidene uoride (PVDF) has attracted much attention owing to its notable chemical stability, stain resistance, mechanical properties, wide processing temperature, and pliability.…”

Thermal Effects

“…The p-CSM showed an effective Cu 2+ adsorption capacity of 2.57 mmol/g, and an adsorption efficiency of 90% for Cu 2+ could be maintained even after six cycles. Polyethersulfone-Titania organicinorganic hollow fiber hybrid membrane was prepared by sol-gel process assisted reverse physically induced phase separation, and the organic-inorganic hybrid membranes exhibited good performance with a maximum pure water flux of 1046 L/m 2 ·h.Membrane distillation.Exhaust stream from natural gas compressor station (NGCS) was identified as a potential waste heat source, which can be used to operate direct contact membrane distillation, thereby providing economically viable option for processing high salinity produced water(Lokare et al, 2017). Energy analysis showed that the waste heat available from NGCS was sufficient to concentrate all the produced water generated in Pennsylvania to 30 wt.% Yang et al (2017).…”