Textured ceramic membranes for desilting and deoiling of produced water in the Permian Basin
Natalia Rivera-Gonzalez,
Aayushi Bajpayee,
Jakob Nielsen,
Umme Zakira,
Wasif Zaheer,
Joseph Handy,
Tiffany Sill,
Bjorn Birgisson,
Mukul Bhatia,
Sarbajit Banerjee
Affiliations
Natalia Rivera-Gonzalez
Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA
Aayushi Bajpayee
Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA
Jakob Nielsen
Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA
Umme Zakira
Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3136, USA
Wasif Zaheer
Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA
Joseph Handy
Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA
Tiffany Sill
Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA
Bjorn Birgisson
Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3136, USA
Mukul Bhatia
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3115, USA; Berg-Hughes Center for Petroleum & Sedimentary Systems, Texas A& M University, College Station, TX 77843-3115, USA
Sarbajit Banerjee
Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA; Corresponding author
Summary: Oil production in the Permian Basin gives rise to large volumes of produced water contaminated by silt, emulsified oil, and additives used for enhanced oil recovery. There is intense interest in the design of membrane modules as sustainable alternatives for produced water treatment to enable the reuse of produced water for agricultural applications, injection into aquifers, and redeployment in oil recovery. Here, we report a hierarchically textured cement-based membrane exhibiting orthogonal wettability, specifically, superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic characteristics. The in situ formation of ettringite needles accompanied by embedding of glass spheres imbues multiscale texturation to stainless-steel mesh membranes, enabling the separation of silt and oil from produced water at high flux rates (1600 L h−1۰m−2, at ca. 2.7 bar). Oil concentration is reduced as low as 1 ppb with an overall separation efficiency of 99.7% in single-pass filtration. The membranes show outstanding mechanical resilience and retention of performance across multiple cycles.
