LAUSR

Abstract Produced water is the largest volume byproduct stream in oil and gas production, and has an adverse environmental impact due to its complex composition and high disposal costs. Membrane fouling due to hydrocarbons limits purification of produced water by reverse osmosis (RO). A novel hybrid adsorption/ion exchange (IEX)/RO process is developed in which the adsorber removes dissolved hydrocarbons, IEX removes scale causing precursors, and RO desalinates the water. A part of the hydrocarbon free liquid from the adsorber is pressurized to 6.2 bar, heated to 160 °C and used to regenerate the adsorber, which resulted in an improvement in water recovery (to 86%), and translated into a predicted 22.8% decrease in costs amounting to US$ 27 million annual savings. The new high water recovery processes delineated in this work provide an array of novel options for removing hydrocarbons and desalination under different conditions. Experimental studies are needed to verify the assumptions made in this analysis.