Produced water treatment technologies

Ebenezer T. Igunnu and George Z. Chen

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, 2014, vol. 9, issue 3, 157-177

Abstract: Produced water is a complex mixture of organic and inorganic compounds and the largest volume of by-product generated during oil and gas recovery operations. The potential of oilfield produced water to be a source of fresh water for water-stressed oil-producing countries and the increasing environmental concerns in addition to stringent legislations on produced water discharge into the environment have made produced water management a significant part of the oil and gas business. This article reviews current technologies for the management of produced water, examines how electrochemical techniques may be used in these areas and compares the prospects for future development. It suggests that treatment technologies based on electrochemistry could be the future of produced water management, since produced water is a potential electrolyte because it has a relatively good conductivity. It also explains that by applying photoelectrochemistry, water electrolysis, fuel cell and electrodeposition, electrochemical engineering could achieve energy storage, production of clean water and recovery of valuable metals from produced water with minimal or no negative impact on the environment.

Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ijlct/cts049 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:ijlctc:v:9:y:2014:i:3:p:157-177.

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies is currently edited by Saffa B. Riffat

More articles in International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies from Oxford University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().