Produced Water Treatment

The produced water is sourced from upstream oil & gas production.

It is highly contaminated by: oil & grease, organics, salinity, total suspended solids, naturally occurring radioactive material, sulphide, metals.

It cannot be discharged directly to surface water nor in wells, due to its high environmental impact.

Here below is described one of the flow scheme treatment that PSC S.p.A. Engineering & Contracting (PSC) can perform:

• Oil skim tank to remove mainly free oil, total suspended solids, dissolved gases;
• Hydrocyclones by centrifugal force to reduce the high quantity of free oil content, as primary treatment;
• Corrugated plate interceptor as an alternative to hydrocyclones to reduce the free oil and total suspended solids, by settling process enhanced by internal corrugated plates installation;
• Induced gas flotation and compact flotation to remove the residual free and emulsified oil and total suspended solids as secondary treatment;
• Nut shell filter is a granular filtration process under pressure for complete removal of fine total suspended solids and any remaining free oil;
• Ceramic ultrafiltration membranes (in particular case), for full reduction of colloidal matter and free and emulsified oil;
• Zero liquid discharge, where a water reuse is required and it could consist in thermal evaporation or seawater reverse osmosis desalination.

The treated produced water can be used for industrial services or mainly for water injection.