Desalination of Synthetic Produced Water by Directional Solvent Extraction in a Semi-Continuous System

Pablo Vicaria

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing is a water-intensive practice prevalent in extracting oil and gas from reservoirs unproductive to conventional drilling methods. However, the extraction process, generates a great amount of produced water (PW) as by-product. The property of PW varies from site to site, but they are generally hypersaline, rendering them unreusable without treatment. Compared to thermal- and membrane-based desalination, directional solvent extraction (DSE) for separating salts from water using organic solvents is an energy-efficient process. We used a thermally responsive solvent in diisopropylamine for salt separation, followed by the recovery of the solvent at a different temperature. The purpose of the study is to optimize the process of solvent extraction by incrementing the amount of water with the lowest concentration of salts possible. This work is a continuation of our previous proof of concept study. With a semi-continuous system, we further demonstrated the advantages that DSE offers and its technical feasibility.

Comments

Studies in Biology & Water Resources
BLH 262

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