Presenter
Ganesh L. Ghurye, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher for Unconventional Produced Water management
ExxonMobil
Description
To understand partitioning of produced water (PW) constituents using thermal desalination, PW from the Delaware Basin was desalinated using a crystallization process and modeled using OLI Systems, Inc. (OLI, Parsippany, NJ, USA) chemistry software. As evaporation progressed, sparingly soluble compounds such as gypsum and celestite precipitated first and overall solids production at this stage was low (<1% of total solids). Further evaporation resulted in saturation of the residual brine with respect to NaCl, which started to precipitate in bulk up to a practical desalination limit of approximately 68% by mass (approximately 80% by volume). Experimental results showed two major challenges to beneficial use of desalinated PW – the presence of organics in distillate which could require additional polishing treatment to a level appropriate for intended beneficial use and the generation of large quantities of solid waste (predominantly highly soluble NaCl).
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