Comparison of the degree of fouling at various flux rates and modes of operation using forward osmosis for remediation of produced water from unconventional oil and gas development

Tiffany Liden; Doug D Carlton Jr; Shinji Miyazaki; Takehiko Otoyo; Kevin A Schug

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.061

Comparison of the degree of fouling at various flux rates and modes of operation using forward osmosis for remediation of produced water from unconventional oil and gas development

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Jul 20:675:73-80. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.061. Epub 2019 Apr 12.

Authors

Tiffany Liden¹, Doug D Carlton Jr², Shinji Miyazaki³, Takehiko Otoyo³, Kevin A Schug⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Texas at Arlington, 700 Planetarium Place, Arlington, TX 76019, USA.
² Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Texas at Arlington, 700 Planetarium Place, Arlington, TX 76019, USA; Affiliate of Collaborative Laboratories for Environmental Analysis and Remediation, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, USA.
³ Asahi Kasei Corporation, 2-1 Samejima, Fuji, Shizuoka 416-8501, Japan.
⁴ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Texas at Arlington, 700 Planetarium Place, Arlington, TX 76019, USA; Affiliate of Collaborative Laboratories for Environmental Analysis and Remediation, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, USA. Electronic address: kschug@uta.edu.

PMID: 31026645
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.061

Abstract

Driven by increased energy demands and technological advancements, the energy landscape of the United States has been changed by the expansion of unconventional oil and gas extraction. Unconventional development requires well stimulation, which uses millions of gallons of water per well and generates billions of gallons of wastewater annually. The waste matrix, referred to as produced water, has proven to be challenging to treat due to the complex physical, chemical, and biological composition, which can change over the lifetime of a production well. Here, forward osmosis was used as a remediation technique to extract fresh water from produced water procured from the Permian Basin region of west Texas. These data examine the durability of thin-film hollow-fiber membranes by determining how quickly the membranes irreversibly fouled at various flux rates during two modes of operation: a) active layer in contact with the draw solution (AL-DS); and b) active layer in contact with the feed solution (AL-FS). Membranes used in AL-DS mode fouled faster than their counterparts used in AL-FS mode. Additionally, membranes used with higher flux rates fouled more quickly than those used under low flux conditions. Ultimately, it was determined that produced water will require pretreatment prior to being concentrated using forward osmosis.

Keywords: Active layer; Forward osmosis; Hollow-fiber membranes; Produced water remediation; Unconventional oil and gas.