PURE: Integrated Oil and Emerging Contaminants Removal from Wastewater for Safe Reuse

The PURE project aims to develop advanced treatment solutions for the removal of oil and emerging contaminants (ECs) from industrial wastewater to enable safe water reuse. Target waste streams include produced water from oil and gas operations and contaminated groundwater impacted by industrial activities, such as PFAS contamination resulting from firefighting training and industrial chemical usage. These contaminants pose significant environmental and public health risks due to their persistence, mobility, and resistance to conventional treatment methods. For oil removal, the project focuses on the development of integrated oil–water separation technologies using hierarchically structured coalescing and adsorbing materials that promote efficient droplet coalescence and adsorption, enabling continuous oil separation. The system will be coupled with enhanced evaporation modules designed to accelerate water evaporation while enabling controlled salt crystallization and mineral recovery, supporting pathways toward zero-liquid discharge and circular resource utilization. For emerging contaminants, particularly PFAS and other persistent organic compounds, the project will employ selective membrane separation to concentrate ECs from dilute wastewater streams. After preconcentration, advanced catalytic degradation processes will be applied to break down these contaminants into less harmful compounds while minimizing secondary waste generation. The project will develop two integrated treatment systems: 1- oil–water separation and water recovery, 2-ECs removal through selective membrane separation followed by catalytic degradation. The project will be conducted in collaboration with ExxonMobil (EMRQ) and QatarEnergy LNG, with potential collaboration with Shell, to ensure the technologies address real industrial wastewater challenges and support scalable deployment.

Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU)