Method and system for treating wastewater
AssigneeEureka Resources, LLC
InventorsDaniel Ertel, Kent McManus, Jason Rushing, Jerel Bogdan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems are provided herein for treating wastewater, such as wastewater from oil and natural gas production. Distilled water may be treated with bacteria and other micro-organisms to remove nitrogen compounds from the distilled water. The distilled water may be produced from pretreating and distilling wastewater. The treatment steps of the distilled water include subjecting the water to microbial action under both anoxic and aerobic conditions and employing a membrane bioreactor to further purify the water. The purified water is still further purified by either reverse osmosis or ion exchange systems.
Claims35
A method of preparing de-wasted water from oil and/or natural gas production wastewater, the method comprising:
- distilling oil and/or natural gas production wastewater to produce a distilled wastewater comprising contaminants, the contaminants comprising nitrogen compounds,
- wherein said distilling comprises introducing the wastewater to one or more of a crystallization unit and an evaporator unit;
- purifying the distilled water to produce a purified water therefrom, said purifying comprising:
- adjusting the temperature of the distilled water to between 20° C. to 35° C.;
- denitrifying a portion of the nitrogen compounds in the distilled water under anoxic conditions;
- nitrifying additional nitrogen compounds in the distilled water under aerobic conditions;
- and
- introducing the distilled water to a membrane bioreactor comprising a membrane to remove a portion of the contaminants from the distilled water to arrive at a purified water from the membrane bioreactor;
- and
- introducing the purified water to a reverse osmosis system and/or an ion exchange system to convert the purified water into a de-wasted water that meets or exceeds each de-wasted water criterion of General Permit WMGR123 (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 2012).
A method of preparing de-wasted water from oil and/or natural gas production wastewater, the method comprising:
- distilling oil and/or natural gas production wastewater to produce a distilled wastewater therefrom,
- wherein the wastewater comprises contaminants, the contaminants comprising sodium chloride and nitrogen compounds, and
- wherein a portion of the sodium chloride is removed from the wastewater, as a brine, during said distilling;
- purifying the distilled water to produce a purified water therefrom, said purifying comprising:
- adjusting the temperature of the distilled water to between 20° C. to 35° C.;
- denitrifying a portion of the nitrogen compounds in the distilled water under anoxic conditions;
- nitrifying additional nitrogen compounds in the distilled water under aerobic conditions;
- and
- introducing the distilled water to a membrane bioreactor comprising a membrane to remove a portion of the contaminants from the distilled water to arrive at a purified water from the membrane bioreactor;
- and
- introducing the purified water to a reverse osmosis system and/or an ion exchange system to convert the purified water into a de-wasted water that meets or exceeds each de-wasted water criterion of General Permit WMGR123 (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 2012).
A method of preparing de-wasted water from oil and/or natural gas production wastewater, the method comprising:
- receiving oil and/or natural gas production wastewater comprising contaminants, the contaminants comprising solids and nitrogen compounds;
- pretreating the wastewater to produce a pretreated wastewater therefrom, said pretreating comprising one or more of:
- adjusting a pH of the combined wastewater stream, adding one or more chemicals to the combined wastewater stream, clarifying the combined wastewater stream, filtering the combined wastewater stream and introducing the combined wastewater stream to an equalization tank,
- wherein:
- a portion of the solids is removed from the wastewater during said pretreating,
- the removed solids are introduced to a sludge thickening tank to produce a thickened sludge,
- the thickened sludge is passed through a filter press to separate a liquid therefrom, and
- the separated liquid is pretreated with the wastewater;
- distilling the pretreated wastewater to produce a distilled wastewater;
- purifying the distilled water to produce a purified water therefrom, said purifying comprising:
- adjusting the temperature of the distilled water to between 20° C. to 35° C.;
- denitrifying a portion of the nitrogen compounds in the distilled water under anoxic conditions;
- nitrifying additional nitrogen compounds in the distilled water under aerobic conditions;
- and
- introducing the distilled water to a membrane bioreactor comprising a membrane to remove a portion of the contaminants from the distilled water to arrive at a purified water from the membrane bioreactor;
- and
- introducing the purified water to a reverse osmosis system and/or an ion exchange system to convert the purified water into a de-wasted water that meets or exceeds each de-wasted water criterion of General Permit WMGR123 (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 2012).
A method of preparing de-wasted water from oil and/or natural gas production wastewater, the method comprising:
- distilling oil and/or natural gas production wastewater to produce a distilled wastewater comprising contaminants, the contaminants comprising nitrogen compounds;
- purifying the distilled water to produce a purified water therefrom, said purifying comprising:
- adjusting the temperature of the distilled water to between 20° C. to 35° C.;
- denitrifying a portion of the nitrogen compounds in the distilled water under anoxic conditions, said denitrifying comprising adding the distilled water to an anoxic tank comprising denitrifying microorganisms;
- nitrifying additional nitrogen compounds in the distilled water under aerobic conditions;
- and
- introducing the distilled water to a membrane bioreactor comprising a membrane to remove a portion of the contaminants from the distilled water to arrive at a purified water from the membrane bioreactor,
- wherein a portion of the denitrifying microorganisms are trapped in the membrane of the membrane bioreactor and the trapped denitrifying microorganisms are removed from the membrane and added to the anoxic tank;
- and
- introducing the purified water to a reverse osmosis system and/or an ion exchange system to convert the purified water into a de-wasted water that meets or exceeds each de-wasted water criterion of General Permit WMGR123 (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 2012).
A method of preparing de-wasted water from oil and/or natural gas production wastewater, the method comprising:
- distilling oil and/or natural gas production wastewater to produce a distilled wastewater comprising contaminants, the contaminants comprising nitrogen compounds;
- purifying the distilled water to produce a purified water therefrom, said purifying comprising:
- adjusting the temperature of the distilled water to between 20° C. to 35° C.;
- denitrifying a portion of the nitrogen compounds in the distilled water under anoxic conditions, said denitrifying comprising adding the distilled water to an anoxic tank comprising denitrifying microorganisms;
- nitrifying additional nitrogen compounds in the distilled water under aerobic conditions;
- and
- introducing the distilled water to a membrane bioreactor comprising a membrane to remove a portion of the contaminants from the distilled water to arrive at a purified water from the membrane bioreactor;
- and
- introducing the purified water to a reverse osmosis system to convert the purified water into a de-wasted water that meets or exceeds each de-wasted water criterion of General Permit WMGR123 (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 2012),
- wherein a portion of the contaminants are trapped in the reverse osmosis system and the trapped contaminants are removed from the reverse osmosis system and added to the anoxic tank.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.