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Lower produced water disposal volumes

Every barrel of oil is produced with three to seven barrels of water, most of it trucked, piped, or injected for disposal. Osmosys concentrates the stream and returns clean water to the operation.

Modular water treatment skids at a desert production site
Water produced per barrel of oil
3–7bbl
Membrane concentration ceiling
280,000mg/L
Specific energy, against 25–60 thermal
5–12kWh/m³

The challenge

Produced water costs scale with volume, and the volume does not decline on its own. The same operators that pay for disposal often buy fresh water for drilling and completions.

  1. Transport

    Trucking is the dominant cost on leases without water pipelines.

  2. Injection capacity

    Disposal wells are constrained, increasingly by seismicity regulation.

  3. Fresh water

    Operations pay again to source water for drilling and completions.

Approach

The produced water train

Oil and antiscalant are removed first, saleable minerals are taken off the brine, and the MemBrine Concentrator concentrates the remainder. Only the residue goes to disposal or a crystallizer.

Typical configuration. Stream values for each project are set by pilot testing.

Osmosys membrane scope1234Produced water50–250k mg/L TDSPretreatmentOil & antiscalantremovalSelective extractionBr₂ · I₂ · SrSO₄ · BaSO₄MBCBrine concentrator→ 200–280k mg/LCrystallizerOr disposal ofthe residueRecovered waterReuse · injection · cooling5Industrial saltsNaCl · CaCl₂6
  1. 01Produced water50,000–250,000 mg/L TDS
  2. 02Pretreated feedoil and antiscalant removed
  3. 03Extracted brineBr₂ · I₂ · SrSO₄ · BaSO₄ taken off
  4. 04MBC concentrate200,000–280,000 mg/L
  5. 05Recovered waterreuse, injection, or cooling
  6. 06Industrial saltsNaCl and CaCl₂
Process flow diagram with stream table
StreamNameDetail
1Produced water50,000–250,000 mg/L TDS
2Pretreated feedoil and antiscalant removed
3Extracted brineBr₂ · I₂ · SrSO₄ · BaSO₄ taken off
4MBC concentrate200,000–280,000 mg/L
5Recovered waterreuse, injection, or cooling
6Industrial saltsNaCl and CaCl₂

Where the economics work

The benchmark is the lowest-cost disposal route available to the site. A feed analysis establishes the fit before any capital is committed.

Trucked disposal, where cost per barrel is highest
Fit: Strong
Rationed injection capacity
Fit: Strong
Fresh water purchased near the production site
Fit: Strong
Brines carrying lithium or other recoverable minerals
Fit: Strong
An inexpensive disposal well at the lease boundary
Fit: Limited
Salinity above the membrane concentration limit
Fit: Limited

What it delivers

  1. Disposal volume

    A concentrate that is a fraction of the original volume.

  2. Water for reuse

    Recovered water for drilling, completions, injection, or cooling.

  3. Mineral revenue

    Bromine, iodine, strontium and barium salts recovered where the brine supports it.

  4. Pilot-backed design

    Performance guarantees are based on a pilot on the operator's own water.

Discuss a project

Share the flow rate, water analysis, and treatment objective. Our process engineering team will follow up.

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