Water has become more and more a scarce resource and its use rationalization has been a challenge in its several applications. Its status has become even more critical for some platforms and/or oil exploration ships (FPSO => Floating Production Storage and Offloading), that have fresh water (drinkable water) production stations via reverse osmosis and or desalters with limited flows to supply all routine demand and in emergency cases, and it may even be necessary to purchase fresh water from third parties, by means of towing vessel with extremely high unit cost (continent catchment). Thus, we will present in this paper the achievement reached by using a small permeated water volume in SRU (Sulfate Removal Unit), which water, has low sulfate content and is used for injection and in CIPs (Clean In Place) cleaning system, which stands for a large drinkable water consumption within the platform. The research to be described in this technical document, concerning the permeated water use in SRU to use in CIP solutions, will show the achievement reached in a platform in Brazil, after 2.5 years of research in our Singapore Advance Research Center, using a pilot plant.
Desulfation of seawater before injection is required to control reservoir souring and scale formation. For this task, operators use nanofiltration (NF) membranes in sulfate removal units (SRUs). The tendency of the membranes to foul is a key operational challenge. To overcome fouling, frequent chemical cleaning is required. An additional constraint for SRUs is that the amount of treated water cannot be increased easily as a higher water output results in an even faster fouling of membranes. In this paper, we describe a method to enhance permeate flux and fouling resistance of desulfation membranes. The enhancements are achieved by modifying the active layer of commercially available NF membranes using a permanent coating that increases hydrophilicity while retaining the high surface charge characteristic of NF membranes. We report the results of a six-month field trial with the coated membranes. The test was executed at the Seawater Desalination Test Facility in Port Hueneme, California using 2.5" dia. membrane modules. The test skid contained two different parallel flow lines with a stack of six coated 2.5" dia. membranes in series, and an uncoated 2.5" membrane for reference. The results show a 25% higher permeate flux for the coated membranes compared to the uncoated membrane at the same transmembrane pressure. Sulfate rejection was unchanged for both coated and uncoated membranes during the entire duration of the test. The coated membrane also showed a lower fouling rate than the uncoated membrane. The time between cleaning events increased by ∼ 38 % for the coated membranes as compared to the uncoated membrane, and the coated membrane processed ∼ 63 % more permeate before cleaning was required. Preliminary results also indicate an enhanced chlorine tolerance of the coated membranes of at least 3000 ppm-h under continuous chlorination at ∼ 1 ppm. The impact of the coating on the economics of SRU operations will be discussed in the paper. The results presented in this paper demonstrate that performance and operability of SRUs can be significantly enhanced by a newly-developed coating, and that a significant reduction in the lifecycle cost of SRUs can be achieved.
A technical-economic research was done evaluating microfiltration polymeric membranes and cartridge filters as pretreatment of Sulfate Removal Units (SRU). These units were installed in a Stationary Production Unit (SPU) to reduce the concentration of sulfate from seawater (injection water in Enhanced Oil Recovery). The use of seawater with low sulfate in enhanced oil recovery reduces the risk of sulfate deposits during the oil production. Ten companies from different nationalities involved in the industrial water treatment and manufacturing of polymeric membranes sector, have contributed to this comparative research (only a preliminary stage of the future study with qualitative and quantitative analyses). This paper shows that polymeric microfiltration is more advantageous because reduce operational costs and microbiological contamination resulting in a lower risk of biofouling. It also improves the quality of treated water, increases the operational stability and availability of the injection water, extending the lifetime of the nanofiltration polymeric membranes.
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