Swellable Organosilica Materials to Clean Produced Water

This project will increase the effectiveness environmental remediation of produced water. This proposal has two strategic objectives: (1) develop and improve identified technologies to remediate produced water; and (2) develop process of production to make these technologies commercially viable. Produced Water (PW) is a term given to aqueous waste streams and chemical waters which are a by-product of petroleum exploration and recovery. In 2007, the Produced Water Society estimated 800 billion gallons of produced water were created from petroleum extraction activities around the world. The large volumes of produced water often result form an average of 11-fold excess of water compared to the amount of hydrocarbon recovered. Near the end of life of some wells, Produced Water can be as high as 98% of the total volume of liquids extracted. Costs associated with produced water management are often a key component to wells being taken of-line. On-shore or land-based, produced water is handled in four basic ways: 1) Treated and re-used in Oil Services for fracking or other well production activity, 2) Sequestered by re-injection below the water-table in unused or dead wells. I, 3) Dumped into existing waste water treatment plants, and 4) Dumped in disused mines or other locations believed to pose minimum risk to surface waters. Off-shore produced water is handled in one of three ways: 1) Untreated or partly treated it is discharged into the ocean, 2) Near-shore platforms may pump PW to land for treatment as on-shore PW, and 3) In rare circumstances off-shore re-injection is conducted. There are a number of environmental concerns with all existing practices of discharge. One of the most pressing concerns in the management of near-shore treatment on late-cycle fields PW. Near-shore platforms are those which are within site of shorelines or strongly impacting coastline marine systems and other human activity. These fields are commonly older. Commonly are producing 20 barrels of PW per 1 barrel of oil. The PW is generally highly saturated in organic acids, dissolved organics and in many cases radioactive minerals such as barium. Commercial Applications and Other Bene