Application of ceramic membranes for water management in offshore oil production platforms: Process design and economics

Abstract The application of the ceramic membrane separation processes are suitable for the generation of a treated effluent with high quality, enabling the reuse of the effluent and consequently reducing the emission of contaminants into the sea, the chemical consumption and the need to capture and treat seawater. Besides these advantages, membrane systems represent a reduction in weight and footprint, which are very limited on oil platforms. In this study, a technical analysis of an industrial unit to treat produced water was integrated with the seawater treatment system and carried out using data obtained from pilot scale tests, conducted with an industrial zirconia oxide ceramic membranes module, and from actual conventional systems operating data. Considering the integrated configuration, the additional investment cost was estimated at MUS$ 7.3 and it was possible to estimate that the extra cost would be recovered in about seven years, considering a unit capable of generating 1500 m 3  h −1 of treated effluent. This scenario represents a favorable condition for the application of ceramic membranes for oilfield produced water treatment on industrial units and its potential used on offshore oil production platforms.

[1]  Cristiano Piacsek Borges,et al.  Oilfield produced water treatment by ceramic membranes: Preliminary process cost estimation , 2015 .

[2]  Ana Rita Costa,et al.  Performance and cost estimation of nanofiltration for surface water treatment in drinking water production , 2006 .

[3]  Dirk Pauschert.  Study of equipment prices in the power sector , 2009 .

[4]  Neslihan Manav Demir,et al.  Treatment of olive mill wastewaters by nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes , 2010 .

[5]  Liangxiong Li,et al.  Purification of Produced Water by Ceramic Membranes: Material Screening, Process Design and Economics , 2009 .

[6]  Munir Cheryan,et al.  Ultrafiltration and Microfiltration Handbook , 1998 .

[7]  S. E. Weschenfelder,et al.  Oilfield produced water treatment by ceramic membranes: Bench and pilot scale evaluation , 2015 .

[8]  Weiwei Chen,et al.  The possibility and applicability of coagulation-MBR hybrid system in reclamation of dairy wastewater , 2012 .

[9]  A. Jönsson,et al.  The influence of feed flow channel diameter on frictional pressure drop, membrane performance and process cost in full-scale tubular ceramic membranes , 2014 .

[10]  Fatemeh Rekabdar,et al.  Ceramic membrane performance in microfiltration of oily wastewater , 2011 .

[11]  Pablo Fernández,et al.  Cost assessment of membrane processes: A practical example in the dairy wastewater reclamation by reverse osmosis , 2015 .

[12]  J. Campos,et al.  Oilfield Produced Water Treatment by Ceramic Membranes: Mass Transfer and Process Efficiency Analysis of Model Solutions , 2015 .

[13]  David F. Fletcher,et al.  Spiral wound modules and spacers - Review and analysis , 2004 .

[14]  A. Fakhru’l-Razi,et al.  Review of technologies for oil and gas produced water treatment. , 2009, Journal of hazardous materials.

[15]  T. Leiknes,et al.  High frequency back-pulsing for fouling development control in ceramic microfiltration for treatment of produced water , 2011 .

[16]  G. Øye,et al.  Characterization and Suspension Stability of Particles Recovered from Offshore Produced Water , 2014 .

[17]  Munir Cheryan,et al.  Process design and economic analysis of a ceramic membrane system for microfiltration of corn starch hydrolysate , 1998 .

[18]  J. Campos,et al.  Evaluation of ceramic membranes for oilfield produced water treatment aiming reinjection in offshore units , 2015 .

[19]  M. Decloux,et al.  Recent and Emerging Applications of Membrane Processes in the Food and Dairy Industry , 2001 .

[20]  D. B. Bennion,et al.  Underbalanced drilling: Praises and perils , 1998 .

[21]  S. S. Madaeni,et al.  Applicability of ceramic membrane filters in pretreatment of coke-contaminated petrochemical wastewater: Economic feasibility study , 2014 .