16 - Membrane technologies for water treatment and reuse in the gas and petrochemical industries

Abstract

Petroleum oil and gas production and further processing processes generate huge volumes of wastewater to be discharged into the environment, which contains many different chemical compositions depending on the complexity of the refinery, the existing processes, and the type of petroleum oil and gas employed. The membrane pressure-driven process, especially ultrafiltration, is useful to treat such wastewaters and can easily be integrated into existing treatment systems combining several processes. Concentration polarization and membrane fouling are two major challenges confronting membrane applications in water treatment and reuse in the gas and petrochemical industries, and directly determine the capital and operational costs of membrane systems. The system performance could be optimized as follows: (1) design improvements, such as modifying membranes, introducing pulsed flow, turbulence promoters, and rotating/vibrating membranes, or incorporating force fields such as electric or ultrasonic; (2) physical or chemical wastewater pretreatment; and (3) operation optimization via maintaining a high cross-flow velocity, limiting trans-membrane pressure, manipulating wastewater temperature, and periodical hydraulic, chemical, and/or mechanical cleaning.