Historically produced water has been seen a waste stream that needs to be disposed of. Due to the increasing costs of disposing produced water and the diminishing supplies of fresh water, there is growing interest in treating produced water so that it can be used to fracture the next well. The performance of chemicals used to fracture wells is affected by the constituents in the produced water. Therefore the extent of treatment, i.e. what constituents to treat for and to what concentrations, depends on what chemicals will be used to fracture the next well. Produced water is treated stepwise, first to separate oil and suspended solids, then to reduce the concentration of scaling multivalent ions, and finally to reduce the concentration of dissolved salts. There are a number of technologies available to treat each of the constituents in produced water, each with their advantages and disadvantages. The presentation will give an overview of the chemistry of the constituents in the produced water, and the technologies used to treat them.

Reclaiming produced water: Using chemistry to convert a waste stream into a resource

249th National Meeting (2015)

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