Investigations on the use of different ceramic membranes for efficient oil-field produced water treatment

Abstract

Efficient performance of the combination of treatment processes for oilfield produced water generated from oil tank dewatering was investigated in the study presented below. Byproduced wastewater is generated in significant quantity during exploitation of crude oil and gas from onshore and offshore production operations. This wastewater, commonly referred to as "produced water", has distinctive characteristics, due to their organic and inorganic compounds. However, these characteristics change from well to well. The treatment process investigated here consists of a pre-treatment step utilizing microfiltration (0.1 and 0.2µm pore size filters) and/or a simulated batch dissolved air flotation (DAF), and a multistage posttreatment step utilizing cross-flow ultra-(0.05µm pore size and 20kDa molecular weight cutoff filters), and nanofiltration (1 and 0.75kDa MWCO filters). Filters used were ceramic membranes. To determine the separation capability of the processes described, various parameters, such as trans-membrane pressure varying from 0.5 to 2 bar, cross-flow velocity in the range of 0.6 to 1.3m/s, influent oil concentration ranging from 32 to 5420 parts per million (ppm) and different membrane cleaning methods used were investigated. The average permeate flux varied from 3.4 to 3300 l/h*m²*bar, total oil removal was up to 99.5% and total organic carbon removal reached 49%.

Dynamic cross-flow filtration of oilfield produced water by rotating ceramic filter discs

“…Several studies have shown that cross-flow microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) membrane processes are suitable and effective techniques in concentrating O/W emulsions and for production of reusable water, respectively [8][9][10][11][12]. Decline of permeate flux with time observed at high oil concentrations is a fundamental problem in classical cross-flow membrane separation processes during the treatment of oily waste waters.…”

Low-cost clay-based membranes for oily wastewater treatment

“…6),34), 35) As time proceeds, the pore blocking process gradually becomes insignificant and the flux reaches the steady state value. Among the membranes, the lowest flux decline rate was observed for the CB0 membrane.…”

Development and application of ceramic membrane in oily wastewater treatment

“…In the operating conditions (0.2 m of membrane pore size, 0.1 MPa of TMP, 90min of running time), the oil removal rate reached 93%. However, it was worth noting that if the treatment time extended to 120min, the oil removal rate was only 74% [12] . Therefore, the proper treatment conditions play an important role in the treatment effect.…”