Coproduced Ground Water Treatment and Disposal Options During Hydrocarbon Recovery Operations |
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| Authors: | Enos L Stover |
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| Institution: | Enos L. Stover has more than 15 years of experience in research and development, process development, process engineering design, and operations of environmental pollution control projects. He has been involved in cleanup of contaminated ground water for the last 10 years. He has served as supervisor of process development at Roy F. Weston, director of research and development at Metcalf&Eddy, professor of environmental engineering at Oklahoma State University, and principal of Stover &Associates Inc. (P.O. Box 2056, Stillwater, OK 74076). He received his B.S. in civil engineering and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1971, 1972, and 1974, respectively. He has published more than 100 technical papers and was co-author of The Handbook of Hazardous Waste Management. |
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| Abstract: | Reinjection of untreated ground water during hydrocarbon recovery operations provides for economical water handling and can accelerate the recovery of the free hydrocarbons. However, considering current regulatory trends, water containing dissolved hydrocarbon constituents would require treatment prior to reinjection into the aquifer. The disposal of coproduced ground water is dependent on several factors, including the volume of water, level of treatment required, and availability of disposal options. Disposal options include reinjection, discharge to surface water, and beneficial use. This paper presents treatment and disposal options for coproduced water during hydrocarbon recovery operations including cost comparisons for a particular case study.
Treatment technologies for oil/water separation, inorganics and heavy metals removal, and dissolved hydrocarbon removal are presented. The primary technologies discussed for dissolved hydrocarbon removal include air stripping, activated carbon adsorption, biological treatment, and combinations of these technologies. Consideration of the use of existing refinery waste water treatment facilities for ground water treatment should be encouraged where applicable. However, separate treatment facilities are usually required because the use of existing on-site treatment facilities is usually not feasible because of the volume of water produced during large recovery projects and the effectiveness of existing treatment facilities. A specific case example is presented with costs for applying different technologies including the use of existing on-site facilities. Treatment costs ranged between 44 cents to $2.82 per thousand gallons (11 cents to 75 cents per thousand liters) of water treated for the specific technologies examined herein. |
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