Use of Water from Petroleum Production in Colombia for Soil Irrigation as a Sustainable Strategy Adapted from the Oman Desert

Angie Tatiana Ortega-Ramírez (), Ivonne Angulo- De Castro, Nubia Liliana Becerra, Juan Camilo Gómez Caipa and Victor Alexei Huerta-Quiñones ()
Additional contact information
Angie Tatiana Ortega-Ramírez: Management, Environment and Sustainability Research Group, Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department, Universidad de América, Bogota 110311, Colombia
Ivonne Angulo- De Castro: Management, Environment and Sustainability Research Group, Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department, Universidad de América, Bogota 110311, Colombia
Nubia Liliana Becerra: Management, Environment and Sustainability Research Group, Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department, Universidad de América, Bogota 110311, Colombia
Juan Camilo Gómez Caipa: Management, Environment and Sustainability Research Group, Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department, Universidad de América, Bogota 110311, Colombia
Victor Alexei Huerta-Quiñones: Petroleum, Natural Gas and Petrochemical Engineering Faculty, Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Lima 15333, Peru

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-13

Abstract: Production water represents a major sustainability challenge for oil and gas industries, which is why various strategies have emerged globally to encourage its reuse in proactive projects. One of the most recognized strategies has been developed in the Omani desert where artificial wetlands were designed to physically and biologically treat production water. The present study proposes to adapt this strategy to a Colombian context to further study the sustainability of production water reuse. The methodology of this study consists of three phases: evaluate in-field production water through the characterization of irrigation water, identify and prioritize the variables of said strategy, and propose an adequate soil irrigation strategy for a Colombian field. An expert matrix and multicriteria analysis are used to identify the level of interaction among the variables presented, according to the criteria of experts in the field of sustainable production water management. Water quality was ranked by the experts as the most important single variable. On a scale of 1–5, the variables with the highest level of interaction (2.8) are water quality and the type of treatment seedlings, and the variables with the lowest level of interaction (1.3) are additional water treatment systems and final water use. These results have led to the formation of a hierarchy of variables according to impact, which has been used to create a triple bottom line diagram and demonstrate the feasibility of implementing the Omani strategy in Colombia.

Keywords: expert matrix; multicriteria analysis; oil; production water; sustainability; water treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/14892/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/14892/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:14892-:d:969423

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().