Commercialization of the Produced Water Application for Beneficial Reuse, Environmental Impact and Treatment Optimization (PARETO)

Produced water management has been described as both a challenge and opportunity. It is a challenge because of growing volumes and increasing constraints on disposal. It is an opportunity because with appropriate treatment it can be used in place of freshwater for a variety of applications, which is especially important in water stressed regions, such as Texas and New Mexico. Addressing the challenges associated with produced water while realizing the opportunities requires logistical coordination among multiple produced water sources, transportation infrastructure, reuse options, and infrastructure for water storage, treatment and disposal. These logistical challenges include both the day-to-day management of water to ensure safe disposition of produced water while also ensuring availability of water for fracturing operations, as well as strategic decision making on capital investment and longer term development plans. The purpose of this project is to extend the Department of Energy's Produced Water Application for Beneficial Reuse, Environmental Impact and Treatment Optimization (PARETO) decision support tool by addressing technical barriers to commercial adoption. This project will develop an interface to directly utilize industry data sets and develop a methodology to incorporate detailed water chemistry considerations. The resulting tool will be used to demonstrate the ability to optimize produced water management while considering detailed water chemistry. In Phase II, the complex chemical speciation analysis, water treatment, and mineral recovery capabilities will be integrated into the overall software-based decision support tools and its ability to optimize produced water management will be demonstrated in the field.