Trip Report-Produced-Water Field Testing

Technical Report · Fri May 25 00:00:00 EDT 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1041566· OSTI ID:1041566

Sullivan, Enid J. ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) conducted field testing of a produced-water pretreatment apparatus with assistance from faculty at the Texas A&M University (TAMU) protein separation sciences laboratory located on the TAMU main campus. The following report details all of the logistics surrounding the testing. The purpose of the test was to use a new, commercially-available filter media housing containing modified zeolite (surfactant-modified zeolite or SMZ) porous medium for use in pretreatment of oil and gas produced water (PW) and frac-flowback waters. The SMZ was tested previously in October, 2010 in a lab-constructed configuration ('old multicolumn system'), and performed well for removal of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) from PW. However, a less-expensive, modular configuration is needed for field use. A modular system will allow the field operator to add or subtract SMZ filters as needed to accommodate site specific conditions, and to swap out used filters easily in a multi-unit system. This test demonstrated the use of a commercial filter housing with a simple flow modification and packed with SMZ for removing BTEX from a PW source in College Station, Texas. The system will be tested in June 2012 at a field site in Pennsylvania for treating frac-flowback waters. The goals of this test are: (1) to determine sorption efficiency of BTEX in the new configuration; and (2) to observe the range of flow rates, backpressures, and total volume treated at a given flow rate.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1041566
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--12-21661
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BENZENE
EFFICIENCY
Earth Sciences
Engineering(42)
Environmental Protection
Environmental Sciences(54)
FIELD OPERATORS
FIELD TESTS
FILTERS
FLOW RATE
MODIFICATIONS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
POROUS MATERIALS
PROTEINS
REMOVAL
SORPTION
SURFACTANTS
TOLUENE
WATER TREATMENT
XYLENES
ZEOLITES