Conversion
of Oil Field Produced Brine
to Fresh Water
The A&M Desalination Program
manages a number of projects determining what is
involved in the desalination of oil field produced brine
and the technical developments and regulatory changes
needed to make the concept a commercial reality.
To read an overview.
Three sections related to
“conventional” produced water treatment can be reviewed
here:
- the
basics of produced water
management
- the
potential for
desalination of produced brine - to make the
resource more useful in areas of limited fresh water
availability
- the potential
beneficial uses
of produced water for other than oil production
operations.
Desalination of brine can also be
used for agricultural applications. To view the
proceedings of the FAO (Food and Agriculture
Organization - United Nations) Expert Consultation on
Water Desalination for Agricultural Applications
that was held at the FAO, Rome in April 2006,
click here.
The program is beginning new
studies in unconventional O&G resources. This is an emerging industry in Texas
requiring large amounts of water, most of
which cannot be recovered with present technology. This
new source of energy from unconventional resources is
expected to represent almost 50% of the natural gas
produced in the United States in the next 25 years.
Texas has the opportunity to be in the forefront of
technology developed to achieve this by sustainable
economic development. However, this new “face of the O&G
industry” is even more dependent on water resources than
traditional operations. It also tends to be more
intrusive and can negatively impact sensitive
environmental areas and local community areas if not
integrated into managed processes for change that govern
economic development in the state.
Those
interested in the A&M program or in related research can
contact Mr. David B Burnett, the coordinator of this
project at:
David B.
Burnett, Director of Technology GPRI
Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering
Texas A&M University
3116 TAMU
College Station, Texas 77843-3116
(o) 979 845 2274 (f) 979 862 1272
burnett@pe.tamu.edu
http://www.GPRI.org
