Advanced treatment of produced water from gas fields for beneficial uses

Produced water (PW) is generated at massive volumes during gas/ production and usually injected into deep wells for disposal that can lead to environmental pollution. PW from gas fields could potentially be reused for industrial uses and landscaping irrigation, however; the oil, toxic organic compounds and heavy metals content in treated PW need to be addressed. During last two years we studied efficiency of different standalone treatment methods, including wetland, adsorption, coagulation, electrodialysis and reverse osmosis (RO)/nanofiltration (NF) with PW from gas extraction fields both in Qatar and Oman. In was concluded that hybrid treatment process, which include different treatment stages should be develop for efficient treatment of PW to meet current Qatar standards for water to be used for industrial and landscaping purposes. The key goal of this proposal is to investigate the efficiency of hybrid wetland/coalescent media - adsorption- RO membrane treatment of PW from gas fields in Qatar, optimize the treatment process, select the best reuse options, and provide techno-economic feasibility analysis for PW treatment and reuse options. The wetland treatment of PW (provided by Exxon Mobile Research Qatar) will be used at first stage for removal of oil and organic pollutants from PW, followed by media/adsorption treatment and RO membrane filtration. In addition, efficiency of employing advanced coalescence materials with hierarchical porous structures for oil removal from PW will be also evaluated for possible replacement of wetland system in first treatment stage. A working prototype for PW treatment will be design, fabricated and tested.

Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU)