Treating produced water from hydraulic fracturing: Composition effects on scale formation and desalination system selection

Thiel, Gregory P.; Lienhard, John H.

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2014.05.001

Cited by 86 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…We use Pitzer's model for electrolyte solutions (see, e.g., [21,22,23]) to calculate sodium chloride solution osmotic pressure and density as a function of concentration. Due to the low compressibility of water [24], the high pressures utilized in RO systems are not expected to significantly affect the physical properties of the solutions.…”

Section: Solution Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying osmotic membrane fouling to enable comparisons across diverse processes

Tow

Lienhard

2016

Journal of Membrane Science

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In this study, a method of in situ membrane fouling quantification is developed that enables comparisons of foulant accumulation between desalination processes with different membranes, driving forces, and feed solutions. Unlike the conventional metric of flux decline, which measures the response of a process to fouling, the proposed method quantifies the foulant accumulation. Foulant accumulation is parameterized by two variables, cake structural parameter and hydraulic diameter, that are calculated from flux measurements using a model for salt and water transport through fouled reverse osmosis (RO) and forward osmosis (FO) membranes, including dispersive mass transfer in the FO membrane support layer. Model results show that pressure declines through the foulant layer and can, in FO, reach negative absolute values at the membrane. Experimental alginate gel fouling rates are measured within a range of feed ionic compositions where cake hydraulic resistance is negligible. Using both flux decline and cake structural parameter as metrics, the effect of feed salinity on RO fouling is tested and RO is compared to FO. When RO is fouled with alginate, feed salinity and membrane permeability affect flux decline but not foulant accumulation rate. Between FO and RO, the initial rates of foulant accumulation are similar; however, FO exhibits slower flux decline, which causes greater foulant accumulation over time. The new methodology enables meaningful quantification and comparison of fouling rates with the aim of improving fundamental understanding of fouling processes.

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Section: Solution Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying osmotic membrane fouling to enable comparisons across diverse processes

Tow

Lienhard

2016

Journal of Membrane Science

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“…Produced water composition and total salinity vary widely, not only from formation to formation, but even from well to well [1,19,20], making it impossible to standardize the composition. Nevertheless, the major components of the water show patterns.…”

Section: Modeling Produced Water Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy consumption in desalinating produced water from shale oil and gas extraction

et al. 2015

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On-site treatment and reuse is an increasingly preferred option for produced water management in unconventional oil and gas extraction. This paper analyzes and compares the energetics of several desalination technologies at the high salinities and diverse compositions commonly encountered in produced water from shale formations to guide technology selection and to inform further system development. Produced water properties are modeled using Pitzer's equations, and emphasis is placed on how these properties drive differences in system thermodynamics at salinities significantly above the oceanic range. Models of mechanical vapor compression, multi-effect distillation, forward osmosis, humidification-dehumidification, membrane distillation, and a hypothetical high pressure reverse osmosis system show that for a fixed brine salinity, evaporative system energetics tend to be less sensitive to changes in feed salinity. Consequently, second law efficiencies of evaporative systems tend to be higher when treating typical produced waters to near-saturation than when treating seawater. In addition, if realized for high-salinity produced waters, reverse osmosis has the potential to achieve very high efficiencies. The results suggest a different energetic paradigm in comparing membrane and evaporative systems for high salinity wastewater treatment than has been commonly accepted for lower salinity water.

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“…In addition, sodium chloride is the major component in seawater, and recent studies show close agreement between the properties of the two solutions [32,33]. The properties of sodium chloride were implemented in MATLAB by Thiel et al [34,35] using Pitzer's equations [36][37][38][39][40][41]. The properties used in our calculations are the solution density, the mean molal activity coefficient, the water activity, and the osmotic pressure.…”

Section: Appendix E Thermophysical Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal design and operation of electrodialysis for brackish-water desalination and for high-salinity brine concentration

et al. 2017

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Electrodialysis (ED) is a desalination technology that has been deployed commercially for decades. However, few studies in the literature have looked at the optimal design and operation of these systems, especially for the concentration of high-salinity brines. In this paper, a set of constraints is defined to allow a fair comparison between different system sizes, designs, and operating conditions. The design and operation of ED are studied for the applications of brackish-water desalination and of high-salinity brine concentration for a fixed system size. The set of variables that determine the power consumption of a fixed-size system is reduced to include only the channel height and the velocity, with all the other design and operation variables depending on these two variables. After studying the minimization of power consumption for a fixed system size, the minimum costs associated with the different system sizes are studied, and the differing trends in brackish-water and high-salinity applications are compared. Finally this paper presents the effect of the cost modeling parameters on the trends of the optimal system size, current density, length, channel height, and velocity for the two applications studied.

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Treating produced water from hydraulic fracturing: Composition effects on scale formation and desalination system selection

Cited by 86 publications

References 37 publications

Quantifying osmotic membrane fouling to enable comparisons across diverse processes

Quantifying osmotic membrane fouling to enable comparisons across diverse processes

Energy consumption in desalinating produced water from shale oil and gas extraction

Optimal design and operation of electrodialysis for brackish-water desalination and for high-salinity brine concentration

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