Use of Produced Water in Recirculating Cooling Systems at Power Generating Facilities

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate produced water as a supplemental source of water for the San Juan Generating Station (SJGS). This study incorporates elements that identify produced water volume and quality, infrastructure to deliver it to SJGS, treatment requirements to use it at the plant, delivery and treatment economics, etc. SJGS, which is operated by Public Service of New Mexico (PNM) is located about 15 miles northwest of Farmington, New Mexico. It has four units with a total generating capacity of about 1,800 MW. The plant uses 22,400 acre-feet of water per year from the San Juan River with most of its demand resulting from cooling tower make-up. The plant is a zero liquid discharge facility and, as such, is well practiced in efficient water use and reuse.For the past few years, New Mexico has been suffering from a severe drought. Climate researchers are predicting the return of very dry weather over the next 30 to 40 years. Concern over the drought has spurred interest in evaluating the use of otherwise unusable saline waters.Produced water is generated nationally as a byproduct of oil and gas production. Seven states generate 90 percent of the produced water in the continental US. About 37 percent of the sources 1 documented in the US Geological Survey's (USGS) Produced Waters Database have a TDS of less than 30,000 mg/l. This is significant because produced water treatment for reuse in power plants was found to be very costly above 30,000 mg/l TDS. For the purposes of this report, produced water treatment was assessed using the technologies evaluated for the San Juan Generating Station (SJGS) in Deliverable 3, Treatment and Disposal Analysis. Also, a methodology was developed to readily estimate capital and operating costs for produced water treatment. Two examples are presented to show how the cost estimating methodology can be used to evaluate the cost of treatment of produced water at power plants close to oil and gas production.1 This threshold value is based on a numeric sort of the data and is not weighted by produced water volume. Executive SummaryThe purpose of this study is to evaluate produced water as a supplemental source of water for the San Juan Generating Station (SJGS). This study incorporates elements that identify produced water volume and quality, infrastructure to deliver it to SJGS, treatment requirements to use it at the plant, delivery and treatment economics, etc.SJGS, which is operated by Public Service of New Mexico (PNM) is located about 15 miles northwest of Farmington, New Mexico. It has four units with a total generating capacity of about 1,800 MW. The plant uses 22,400 acre-feet of water per year from the San Juan River with most of its demand resulting from cooling tower make-up. The plant is a zero liquid discharge facility and, as such, is well practiced in efficient water use and reuse.For the past few years, New Mexico has been suffering from a severe drought. Climate researchers are predicting the return of very dry weather over the next 30 to 40 y...