Laboratory and pilot-scale studies of membrane distillation for desalination of produced water from Permian Basin

Pawar, Ritesh; Zhang, Zhewei; Vidic, Radisav D.

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2022.115853

Laboratory and pilot-scale studies of membrane distillation for desalination of produced water from Permian Basin

Journal Article · Thu May 26 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Desalination

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2022.115853· OSTI ID:1977062

Pawar, Ritesh ^[1]; Zhang, Zhewei ^[2]; Vidic, Radisav D. ^[2]

Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States); OSTI
Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

Substantial quantities of produced water generated during the extraction of oil and gas from unconventional reservoirs present significant environmental concern and increase the operating cost for this industry. Membrane Distillation (MD) can serve as a potential solution for beneficial reuse of produced water by generating high-quality permeate and reducing the volume of produced water requiring disposal. This study investigated treatment of produced water from Permian Basin in both laboratory and pilot-scale studies. Laboratory tests revealed the potential to successfully recover 50% of produced water although some increase in permeate conductivity was observed due to the passage of ammonia from the feed side. Initial pilot-scale test with filtration of raw produced water as the only pre-treatment step led to precipitation of SrSO₄, NaCl, and Fe in the system once the solubility limits for these salts were exceeded. However, chemical pretreatment that included pH adjustment, aeration, and barite precipitation, allowed successful steady-state operation of the AGMD pilot system for 5 days where the produced water was concentrated from 127 g/L to 255 g/L (~50% water recovery) while recovering high quality permeate. Overall, greater than 99.7 % salt rejection was achieved with the average permeate flux of 1.86 LMH. Finally, mass balance analysis suggested potential Ba and Ca precipitation in the system but there was no impact on AGMD performance and permeate quality during 5 days of continuous operation in the field.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Gas Technology Institute, Des Plaines, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)

Grant/Contract Number:: FE0024292

OSTI ID:: 1977062

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1873462

Journal Information:: Desalination, Journal Name: Desalination Journal Issue: C Vol. 537; ISSN 0011-9164

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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