Produced Water Treatment and Valorization: A Techno-Economical Review

Abstract

In recent years, environmental concerns have urged companies in the energy sector to modify their industrial activities to facilitate greater environmental stewardship. For example, the practice of unconventional oil and gas extraction has drawn the ire of regulators and various environmental groups due to its reliance on millions of barrels of fresh water—which is generally drawn from natural sources and public water supplies—for hydraulic fracturing well stimulation. Additionally, this process generates two substantial waste streams, which are collectively characterized as flowback and produced water. Whereas flowback water is comprised of various chemical additives that are used during hydraulic fracturing; produced water is a complex mixture of microbiota, inorganic and organic constituents derived from the petroliferous strata. This review will discuss the obstacles of managing and treating flowback and produced waters, concentrating on the hardest constituents to remove by current technologies and their effect on the environment if left untreated. Additionally, this work will address the opportunities associated with repurposing produced water for various applications as an alternative to subsurface injection, which has a number of environmental concerns. This review also uses lithium to evaluate the feasibility of extracting valuable metals from produced water using commercially available technologies.

The Role of Iron in Oxidant-Initiated Halogenation Reactions of Hydraulic Fracturing Additives

“…Much of this injected water, along with formation water present in the reservoir, is returned to the surface when the well is depressurized. This water, called produced water, is treated as hazardous industrial waste due to its toxicitywhich derives from its high salinity, the presence of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), and the presence of unknown types and concentrations of dissolved organic chemicals. , The produced water that is not reused for hydraulic fracturing is typically injected into disposal wellsa strategy which is becoming increasingly unsustainable, as reports of induced seismicity caused by disposal well injections have increased . Furthermore, because much of the shale oil and gas extraction in the United States takes place in water-strained regions, there is a need to develop ways to recycle produced water …”