Reverse osmosis-based water treatment for green hydrogen production

Abstract

We analyze the use of excess natural gas (currently flared/vented) to instead treat oilfield-produced water via reverse osmosis (RO) to generate ultrapure electrolysis-grade water (Total Dissolved Solids (TDS): 0.028‐0.5 ppm) for green hydrogen production. We combine an analytical ε-MTU model and CPavg model to predict average permeate concentration, to obtain improved estimates of electrolysis-grade water production from RO systems. The theoretical upper limit of the recovery of a RO system (similar to Carnot efficiency of heat engines) is established. Analysis is conducted for conditions corresponding to Niobrara Shale field (TDS: 29.1 g/L), as well as for brackish water (TDS: 5-15 g/kg) and seawater (TDS: 35–45 g/kg) feeds. Results show that electrolysis-grade water production can be as high as 0.75 m3 per cubic meter of water treated, with 1.38 m3 of natural gas providing the required energy. This translates to hydrogen production of 74.6 kg per cubic meter of produced water treated. Relatively low volumes of gas can treat large water volumes (<4 % of excess gas in Niobrara Shale can treat the entire quantity of produced water). These numbers highlight the benefits of our approach of utilizing two waste streams to create a high-value commodity, critical for decarbonization.