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

iScience (Oct 2022)

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

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 25, no. 10
p. 105063

Abstract

Read online

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.

Published in iScience

ISSN: 2589-0042 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Science
Website: http://www.cell.com/iscience/home

About the journal

Abstract

Keywords