INTRODUCTION 7: Produced Water

Overview 

As hydrocarbons are produced from both conventional and unconventional oil & gas wells, water from the reservoir is also brought to the surface. These waters must be separated from the hydrocarbon stream, processed, and treated for beneficial re-use or disposal. In the U.S., the Government entity that is mostly involved in R&D on this topic is the U.S. Department of Energy and its National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). They are focused on working with academia and industry to accelerate the development of potential process modifications, combinations, or enhancements that will enable the beneficial re-use of these produced waters, and in turn, provide significant reduction in the quantity of produced water going to deep, underground injection well facilities for disposal.

 

 

Specific research elements for the beneficial re-use of produced water aim to produce an engineering design and techno-economic justification, including a laboratory prototype, for a water treatment system that enhances existing commercial water treatment processes. These processes would produce a water supply for fit-for-purpose, beneficial re-use that is competitive with existing water supply costs. [NETL].

 

Module Objectives

In this module, the activities, content, and assignments will guide your learning process to ensure you can:

• Identify and describe environmental sustainability issues within the natural gas sector
• Apply critical thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving skills to environmental sustainability problems
• Describe techniques for the elaboration of Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA)
• Apply the content presented in this course to real world problems

 

Module To-Do List

Here's everything you need to do and remember for this module:

• Read the articles in the Resources section
• Annotate the assigned reading in Perusall
• Come prepared to the Live Session to discuss the reading