Forward osmosis: Novel desalination of produced water and fracturing flowback

Abstract

Treatment and reuse of oil and gas (O&G) production wastewater in a cost‐effective and environmentally sound manner is critical to sustainable industrial development and for meeting stringent regulations. High salinity, free and emulsified hydrocarbons, silts and clays released from producing formations, and process additives common in O&G drilling wastewater render many conventional treatment technologies ineffective. Forward osmosis (FO) has been established as a promising solution for treatment and desalination of complex industrial streams and especially O&G exploration and production wastewaters. FO has achieved up to 85% water recovery from O&G wastewaters and can concentrate feed streams salinities to greater than 150,000 ppm. The process can operate as a stand‐alone technology with minimal pretreatment or be coupled with other advanced processes such as reverse osmosis or distillation. FO minimizes O&G wastewater disposal and produces clean water for intrabasin reuse. Recent developments in membrane fabrication, system configurations, and draw solutions are briefly reviewed.