Treatment of Produced Waters Using a Surfactant Modified Zeolite/Vapor Phase Bioreator System

Abstract

Co-produced water from the oil and gas industry is by some estimates the largest single waste stream in the country, aside from nonhazardous industrial wastes.Characteristics of produced water include high total dissolved solids content, dissolved organic constituents such as benzene and toluene, an oil and grease component, and chemicals added during the oil-production process. While most of the produced water is disposed via reinjection, some of them must be treated to remove organic constituents before the water is discharged. An efficient, cost-effective treatment technology is needed to remove these constituents. Surfactant-modified zeolite (SMZ) has been used successfully to treat contaminated ground water for organic and inorganic constituents.In addition, the low cost of natural zeolites makes their use attractive in water-treatment applications. Our previous DOE research work (DE-AC26-99BC15221) demonstrated that SMZ could successfully remove BTEX compounds from the produced water. In addition, SMZ could be regenerated through a simple air sparging process. The primary goal of this project is to develop a robust SMZ/VPB treatment system to efficiently remove the organic constituents from produced water in a cost-effective manner. to treat the off-gas from the SMZ regeneration process. These columns will be used both in the laboratory and in the proposed field testing to be conducted next year. Innocula for the columns that degrade all of the BTEX columns have been developed.