Oil Removal from Oilfield Produced Water, North Rumaila by Combination CoagulationFlocculation and Microfiltration Technique

Thamer Mohammed,Eman Awad,Thabit Ahmed

doi:10.30684/etj.37.2c.1

Abstract

The Southern Oil Company, which is operated in North Rumaila oilfield in Basrah/ Iraq, is one of the important companies which produced huge amounts of produced oilfield water. The aim of this study is to treat the produced water by hybrid methods: the process of coagulation-flocculation and microfiltration technique (ceramic membrane) to remove the oil content and improve the water quality to meet the allowable limit of reinjection into the reservoir. Poly-aluminum chloride (PAC), and Ferric Chloride (FeCl3.6H2O) coagulants were used separately and in combination with cationic polyelectrolyte (PE). After produced water was treated with different doses of coagulant, it was passed through the Microfiltration technique/ ceramic membrane (0.5µm) to reach the allowable limit for reinjection. It was found that the best value of oil content after passing through ceramic membrane is 0.2 mg/L at FeCl3.6H2O dose (10 mg/L) combined with PE dose (0.6 mg/L), which was less than the allowable limit for re-injection, (5) ppm.

Highlights

During the oil and gas production, produced water brought to the surface from underground formations as an incidental byproduct
Different coagulants doses were used in the coagulation-flocculation experiment under JarTest with an initial oil content of (36.4mg/L)
The results show that the requirement of Poly-aluminum chloride (PAC) dose is higher than FeCl3.6H2O dose, but doses are lowered when combined with Polyelectrolyte (PE), Polyelectrolyte performs very well as a coagulant aid, with FeCl3.6H2O

Summary

Introduction

During the oil and gas production, produced water brought to the surface from underground formations as an incidental byproduct. It is the largest waste stream in the oil and gas exploration and production processes [1,2]. Before Produced water disposed to the environment or re-injected, it requires appropriate technological, chemical, and bacteriological processing to meet the quality requirement [9]. Oilfield produced water is treated by the application of coagulation-flocculation treatment process. The aim of this study is to remove oil content from produced water and meet the allowable limit for re-injection by the hybrid method: the process of coagulation-flocculation and microfiltration technique (ceramic membrane)

Objectives

Methods

Results