Situ system and method for treating an oil and gas well drilling fluid

An in situ system used for treating an oil and gas well drilling fluid discharged into a reserve pit having a first and a second side, the pit disposed next to an oil and gas drilling operation, the system treating the fluid and providing clean water for transfer to a clean water storage tank for further use in the drilling operation, the system comprising:

• a fluid treatment unit adapted for use in the reserve pit, said fluid treatment unit comprising:
• a floating electrocoagulation unit with generator disposed on top of the drilling fluid and above the first side of reserve pit for destabilizing contaminates in the drilling fluid and dropping out stable precipitates;
• a submersible pump electrically connected to the generator for pumping the treated fluid from the reserve pit;
• a water treatment unit for treating the treated fluid from the reserve pit, said water treatment unit comprising:
• a pre-filter for receiving the treated fluid from said pump, said pre-filter filtering out any remaining residual solids in the fluid;
• an activated carbon filter connected to said pre-filter, said carbon filter removing any residual dissolved metals and residual hydrocarbons;
• a heat exchanger connected to said carbon filter, said heat exchanger heating the fluid to a range of 90 to 110 degrees F.
• a reverse osmosis unit connected to said heat exchanger, said reverse osmosis unit for removing salt and any remaining minerals found in the fluid and discharging the filtered, clean water and reject water therefrom, the filtered, clean water transferred to the clean water a storage tank for reuse;
• a water pre-heater connected to said reverse osmosis unit, said pre-heater for receiving reject water from said reverse osmosis unit and heating the reject water;
• a primary and a secondary distillation units connected to said water pre-heater, said units for converting the heated water to steam;
• a condenser connected to said distillation units, said condenser for cooling the steam to distilled, clean water, the clean water from said condenser transferred to the clean water storage tank.

A method for treating an oil and gas well drilling fluid discharged into a reserve pit next to an oil and gas drilling operation, the method treating the fluid and providing clean water for transfer to a clean water storage tank for further use in the drilling operation, the steps comprising:

• treating the drilling fluid with an electrocoagulation unit with generator disposed next to the reserve pit, destabilizing contaminates in the drilling fluid and dropping out stable precipitates in a bottom of the reserve pit;
• pumping the treated fluid from the reserve pit using a submersible pump electrically connected to the generator;
• heating the treated fluid using a heat exchanger, the heat exchanger connected to the pump;
• removing salt and any remaining minerals in the treated fluid using a reverse osmosis unit connected to the heat exchanger and discharging filtered clean water and reject water therefrom, the filtered, clean water transferred to a clean water storage tank for reuse;
• heating the reject water using a pre-heater connected between the reverse osmosis unit and the primary distillation unit prior to transferring the reject water to the primary distillation unit
• converting the reject water to steam;
• and
• condensing the steam using a condenser connected to the primary distillation unit, the condenser cooling the steam to distilled, clean water, the clean water from the condenser is transferred to the clean water storage tank.