Integrated Treatment of Produced Water Using Advanced Electrochemical Oxidation Treatment

As part of the Saudi 2030 vision and considering the scarcity of water problem, the Saudi national water strategy emphasizes on the significance of sustainable water use which requires both implementing efficient water conservation measures as well as increasing the utilization of recycled wastewater as a major supply source for non-potable water demands. In the oil & gas industry water is vital for the production, hydro testing as well as for hydraulic fracturing operations. In the latter case, massive volumes of water are consumed for increasing resource production, commonly 13 million gallons of water per gas well, while in some cases, water use may exceed 5 million gallons (approx. 19 million L) per frac job. The wastewater generated along with oil and gas during extraction from underground reservoirs is referred to as produced water (PW). Its volume is about 3 times the volume of oil and gas extracted and usually originates from the natural water in the oil and gas reservoir and the water injected during enhanced oil and gas recovery with hydraulic fracturing. This proposed project aims to demonstrate the efficiency of novel advanced electrochemical oxidation processes (AEOP) for the successful reduction of organic contents of the PW measured by Total Organic Carbon (TOC). Later, the process will be integrated with another separation unit that will reduce the dissolved solids (salinity) to an acceptable level for reuse. The proposed EAOP combines anodic oxidation (AO) with electro-Fenton (EF) in a single reactor that can effectively remove refractory organic constituents (i.e. polyaromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs, phenols, etc.). To achieve its objectives, the project will consist of conducting lab-scale treatment experiments using an AEOP unit already exist at the hydrology and environment lab at CPG, KFUPM. Optimum AEOP treatment parameters that achieve maximum TOC removal will be identified under different conditions The final PW treated effluent is expected to satisfy the reuse criteria for several beneficial applications such as reuse for hydraulic fracturing, deep well disposal, and firefighting, and other applications that require water of low organic contents.