Summary
The choice of technologies for produced water treatment depends on various factors such as the chemical composition of the water and level of purity that must be attained before disposal, recycle or re-use. Some of the technologies used for produced water treatment include gravity separation, physical separation (such as filtration, hydrocyclones, centrifuges), coalescence, flotation, combined physical and chemical processes, membrane separation, adsorption, and oxidation. Contaminants such as small droplets of dispersed oil and dissolved hydrocarbons are very challenging to remove using these water treatment methods. Moreover, the use of membrane technology has been limited only to the use of reverse osmosis and membrane filtration for removing salinity, metals, and other inorganics. In this study, membrane vapor permeation and pervaporation are proposed for the removal of the small droplets of dispersed oil and dissolved hydrocarbons which have been reported to be very challenging contaminants to remove. Membrane materials to be used for this work will be prepared using a 3D printing technology. The 3D membrane development method was proposed due to its capability to be used for fabricating almost any shape of material at highly specified manner using computer aided design.
Objectives
- The overall objective of this work is to evaluate the potential of membrane pervaporation using 3D printed polymeric membranes for the removal of small droplets of dispersed oil and dissolved hydrocarbons from produced water. Specifically, the sub-objectives of this project are:
- To investigate the potential of 3D printing in tuning the physico-chemical properties of the membranes
- To evaluate of the transport properties of produced water components through the membranes in the vapor phase investigate the use of membrane pervaporation for the treatment of produced water containing certain amount of dispersed oil and dissolved hydrocarbons.
Funding Agency
MOHERI
Collaboration
King Fahad University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia