Oil & Gas Produced Water Management

Produced water contributes to the largest volume waste stream associated with oil and gas (O&G) exploration and production (E&P) operations. It is usually a complex mixture of inorganics and organics that is formed underground and brought to the surface during O&G production. Traditionally, produced water has been considered as a waste to the O&G industry. The conventional management strategies include disposal (typically by injection into depleted wells or permitted disposal wells), recycle (direct reuse within the E&P operation), and reuse (treatment and reuse offsite for food crop irrigation, livestock watering or industrial use). The O&G industry is going through a paradigm shift, where scarcity of water, economics of water management, declining oil costs, and increasing focus on environmental and ecological stewardship are shifting the focus toward integrated water management in E&P operations. Water is no longer a problem to be delegated to a third-party disposal or treatment vendor, but is becoming a cornerstone of O&G production. In this review, we summarize produced water characteristics, regulations and management options, produced water treatment fundamentals, and a detailed discussion of process equipment and advantages/disadvantages of currently available treatment processes. These results in peer-reviewed publications could provide a guide for the selection of appropriate technologies based on the desired application. Major research efforts in the future could focus on the optimization of current technologies and use of combined treatment processes of produced water in order to comply with reuse and discharge limits, under more stringent environmental regulations.

Dr. Eric M.V. Hoek is a professor in UCLA's Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Institute of the Environment & Sustainability and the California NanoSystems Institute. He is also the Director of the UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge. His research explores the union of membrane technologies, nanomaterials and electrochemistry for water, energy and environmental applications. He has over 200 technical publications including over 70 patents filed globally. He has also co-founded several technology startups and has ad vised a wide array of state, federal and international government agencies, local water utilities, technology companies, investment funds, law firms and research funding agencies.Dr. Jingbo Wang is currently a postdoctoral scholar working with Prof. Eric Hoek and Prof. David Jassby in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at UCLA. She received her B.S. from Wuhan University in Water and Wastewater Engineering, and Ph.D. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Environmental Sciences and Engineering. Her research interests focus on desalination, water and wastewater treatment with membrane technologies, and application of nanotechnology in membrane separation and other physical/chemical processes in environmental systems.Mr. Tony D. Hancock is a graduate of UCLA and an Engineering Manager with Black & Veatch. With over 10 years of experience as a consulting engineer, he manages large scale, complex projects for a variety of municipal and private clients throughout the Southern California region. Mr. Hancock’s technical background includes water resources planning, storm water management, potable reuse planning and design, hydraulic analysis, water quality sampling and analysis, asset management, and design of wastewater infrastructure.Arian Edalat has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Bradford, Bradford, U.K. and is an expert in oil water separation and membrane-based water treatment with two decades of global experience in research, bench and pilot scale testing as well as full scale integrated membrane system design, engineering, fabrication, installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance. He is currently the Co-founder and President of Pacifica Water Solutions (PWS), a Los Angeles based company with a mission to lead the global advancement of sustainable desalination and water reuse through engineering, technological, and operational excellence.Subir Bhattacharjee is a founder of multiple water treatment businesses, including Water Planet and IntelliFlux Controls. He was previously a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta, Canada, where he held an Industrial Research Chair for Water Quality Management for the Oil & Gas Industry. He was also the Director of the Oil-Sands and Coal Interfacial Engineering Facility. He has worked extensively and internationally as a consultant and applied researcher on industrial water management, and has authored a textbook, over 100 journal publications, and several patents.David Jassby is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UCLA. He received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Duke University (2011), an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Davis (2005), and a B.Sc. in Biology from Hebrew University (2002). David spent a year working as a consultant in an Environmental Engineering consulting firm in NC (BBL, Inc.). David’s research is primarily concerned with membrane separations, environmental electrochemistry, and water treatment technologies. His lab is currently engaged in research concerning membrane development, desalination, industrial wastewater treatment, oil/water separations, and the electrochemical treatment of contaminated water. He holds several patents on electroactive membranes and processes, and has published more than 60 peer-reviewed manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals.