Description
Produced water, whether it comes from primary production, water flood, steam flood, or enhanced oil recovery, contains hydrocarbons that are dissolved in the water and hydrocarbons that are dispersed as droplets. According to regulations in the United States, as well as many other countries in the world, both the dissolved and the dispersed hydrocarbons must be removed before produced water can be surface discharged. The design of most oil and gas facilities includes units such as settling vessels and tanks, hydrocyclones, and flotation all of which are fairly effective at removing dispersed oil. However, the industry struggles to understand let alone remove water soluble organics.
This webinar will start with the fundamentals of water soluble organics: where they come from, what they are, their properties, their distribution around the world, and typical concentrations. Chemical and mechanical methods for their removal will be reviewed. Finally, some recently discovered characteristics of water soluble organics will be presented which provide both a means of classifying the type of organics and a method to determine the optimal treatment strategy.