Managing salinity in water associated with petrol industry production

Abstract

This article describes a conceptual design for handling an oilfield’s industrial wastewater; its objective was to use type-I fractioned crystallisation within a feasible environmental and technical framework for obtaining the highest percentage of salt. La Gloria, La Gloria Norte and Morichal (all belonging to the Casanare department association) stations were used for planning and analysing this handling alternative as they produce high salt-containing industrial effluent. This alternative was focused on treating 30% of the total volume of the associated water so produced. This volume is expected to be 1239 m3/d in 2000 in the oilfields being studied here. The process allows 92% retrieval from present NaCl (0.918 Ton/h), having 97% purity. Evaporation and aeration systems should be set prior to the crystallisation stage as a means of guaranteeing final product quality and making good use of the field’s facilities.