Produced water is considered one of the largest waste streams by volume and one of the most challenging effluents in the oil and gas industry. This is due to the variety of contaminants that make up produce water. A variety of treatment methods have been studied and implemented. These methods are aimed at reducing the hydrocarbon content and the number of contaminants in produced water to meet the disposal, reuse and environmental regulations. These contaminants can include dispersed oil droplets, suspended solids, dissolved solids, heavy metals and other production chemicals. Some of those contaminates have value and can be a commodity in other application such as bromine (Br). Bromine ions can be used to form calcium bromide, which is considered one of the most effective drilling agents and is used extensively in drilling and completion operations. The aim of this paper is to highlight the utilization and the new extraction method of bromide ions from produced water to form calcium bromide (CaBr<sub>2</sub>). The conventional preparation of calcium-bromide drilling and completion fluids involves adding solid calcium-bromide salts to water, which can be relatively expensive. Another method can involve the handling of strong oxidants and toxic gas to form solid calcium bromide. The novel method outlined in this paper is a cost-effective and an environment friendly way of generating calcium bromide from produced water. The method includes processing the produced water to recover bromide ions. This is done by first passing the produced water through a bed of resin including bromine-specific ion exchange resin, where the bromide ions will adsorb/absorb onto the resin as shown in Figure-1. The second step involves regenerating the resin with regenerant having calcium cations and water to form calcium bromide. The final stage is generating the calcium bromide in the water from the bed of resin by introducing concentrated CaCl<sub>2</sub>, forming a concentrated solution of water and calcium bromide. The generated solution will be further processed to be introduced to drilling and completion fluids. This novel method constitutes a good example of produced water utilization in different applications to minimize waste and reduce costs.

Bromide-ions extraction from produced water for drilling and completion fluid reuse

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