AbstractTitle: Ceramic membrane filtration of produced water: Impact of membrane moduleAuthors: T. Zsirai, A.K. Al-Jaml, H. Qiblawey, M. Al-Marri, A. Ahmed, S. Bach, S. Watson, S. JuddTo appear in: Separation and Purification TechnologyReceived Date: 14 February 2016Revised Date: 31 March 2016Accepted Date: 1 April 2016

Produced water (PW) generated from oil explora-tion requires rigorous removal of suspended matter (free oil and particulate solids) as tertiary treat-ment (downstream of hydro cyclone and gas flota-tion) if it is to be re-injected into low-permeability reservoirs. The viability of membrane filtration for this duty is largely dependent on sustaining a high membrane flux to minimize the process footprint.A pilot-scale study of PW filtration using crossflow multi-channel ceramic membrane technology has

been conducted to identify the appropriate mem-brane characteristics for sustaining the flux whilst maintaining the required treated water qual-ity. Membranes based on two materials (silicon carbide, SiC, and titanium dioxide, TiO2) and two different pore sizes were challenged with real PW samples taken from oil platforms operating on the Arabian Gulf. The membranes were characterized per the overall permeability decline rate and the end permeability.Results suggest that SiC membranes outperform TiO2 ones with respect to sustainable permeability under the same operating and maintenance condi-tions. The SiC microfiltration membrane provided anomalously high permeabilities but also the high-est fouling propensity.Results suggest that whilst the high fluxes (1300-1800 L m-2 h-1) are attainable for the technology, this is contingent upon the application of an effec-tive chemical clean.

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Abstract Title: Screening of microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltra-tion (UF) ceramic membranes for produced water treat-ment and testing of different cleaning methodsAuthor: Ali Heydari BeniTo appear in: Process Systems Engineering, University of Regina, Saskatchewan Received Date: April 2014

Membrane filtration, as a physical treatment method, was used to treat produced water (PW). Two ceramic microfiltration (MF) membranes and two ceramic ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were tested. The treatment target was to reach a con-tamination level suitable for further treatment by nanofiltration (NF)/reverse osmosis (RO) poly-meric membranes, discharge into sea or injection into oil wells for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

MF 0.3 micron TiO2/ZrO2 and SiC MF membranes were initially tested. The SiC MF membrane was selected based on the permeate flux and rejection performances. The selected MF membrane was used as the first filtration step. The two UF mem-branes, SiC UF and UF 150 KDa TiO2/ZrO2, were used for further treatment of the permeate. Fi-nally, the UF membranes were directly tested for the treatment of PW, thus, the SiC UF membrane was selected as the most suitable UF membrane for the PW used.

When selecting MF and UF membrane, the SiC UFmembrane appeared to be the most suitable membrane since it could totally remove the oil, but, it also had the disadvantage of lower perme-ate flux than the selected MF membrane.

Oil and gas

• High removal efficiency of heavy metals, suspended solids and hydrocarbons• Robust material and process properties for challenging applications, such as high temperature, low/high pH, abrasive media and aggressive chemicals.• An unmatched combination of removal efficiencies with process robustness

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