Energy consumption in desalinating produced water from shale oil and gas extraction
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Thiel_Desalination_2015.pdf
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Author(s)
Tow, Emily W.
Chung, Hyung Won
Thiel, Gregory Parker
Banchik, Leonardo David
Lienhard, John H
Date Issued
January 2015
Journal
Desalination
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Thiel, Gregory P., Emily W. Tow, Leonardo D. Banchik, Hyung Won Chung, and John H. Lienhard. “Energy Consumption in Desalinating Produced Water from Shale Oil and Gas Extraction.” Desalination 366 (June 2015): 94–112.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
On-site treatment and reuse is an increasingly preferred option for produced water management in unconventional oil and gas extraction. This paper analyzes and compares the energetics of several desalination technologies at the high salinities and diverse compositions commonly encountered in produced water from shale formations to guide technology selection and to inform further system development. Produced water properties are modeled using Pitzer's equations, and emphasis is placed on how these properties drive differences in system thermodynamics at salinities significantly above the oceanic range. Models of mechanical vapor compression, multi-effect distillation, forward osmosis, humidification–dehumidification, membrane distillation, and a hypothetical high pressure reverse osmosis system show that for a fixed brine salinity, evaporative system energetics tend to be less sensitive to changes in feed salinity. Consequently, second law efficiencies of evaporative systems tend to be higher when treating typical produced waters to near-saturation than when treating seawater. In addition, if realized for high-salinity produced waters, reverse osmosis has the potential to achieve very high efficiencies. The results suggest a different energetic paradigm in comparing membrane and evaporative systems for high salinity wastewater treatment than has been commonly accepted for lower salinity water.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Abdul Latif Jameel World Water & Food Security Lab
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2014.12.038
