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US 2026/0193111 A1Published application
Produced water treatment
AssigneeSaudi Arabian Oil Company
InventorsMohammad Saad AlQahtani, Abdulaziz Y. AlAmmar, Sarah N. Al-Mahfoodh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A ceramic membrane microfilter is operated in a dead-end mode to separate particulates and oil from produced water to produce a first treated water stream and a sludge. A corrugated plate interceptor separates phases of the sludge to produce a second treated water stream, a concentrated sludge, and a recovered oil stream.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- operating a ceramic membrane microfiltration (MF) unit in a dead-end mode to separate particulates and oil from a produced water stream comprising produced water from a subterranean formation to produce a first treated water stream and a sludge comprising the particulates and the oil, wherein operating the ceramic membrane MF unit in the dead-end mode comprises flowing the produced water stream perpendicularly to a surface of a ceramic membrane of the ceramic membrane MF unit, wherein the ceramic membrane defines a plurality of pores having pore sizes in a range from about 0.1 micrometers (μm) to about 10 μm;
- and
- separating, by a corrugated plate interceptor (CPI) unit, phases of the sludge to produce a second treated water stream, a concentrated sludge, and a recovered oil stream.
A system comprising:
- a produced water stream comprising produced water from a subterranean formation;
- a ceramic membrane microfiltration (MF) unit comprising a flowline and a ceramic membrane defining a plurality of pores having pore sizes in a range from about 0.1 micrometers (μm) to about 10 μm, wherein the flowline is positioned and configured to direct flow of the produced water stream to the ceramic membrane in a direction that is substantially perpendicular to a surface of the ceramic membrane, such that the ceramic membrane is operated in a dead-end mode to discharge a treated water stream and produce sludge;
- a corrugated plate interceptor (CPI) unit comprising a CPI configured to receive the sludge and separate phases of the sludge to produce a second treated water stream, a concentrated sludge, and a recovered oil stream;
- the first treated water stream discharged by the ceramic membrane MF unit;
- and
- the second treated water stream discharged by the CPI unit.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.