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A Combined Membrane Filtration - Aeration Approach for the Treatment of Hydraulic Fracturing - Flowback and Produced Water from the Duvernay Formation
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- Author / Creator
- Plata Enriquez, Isabel
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Membrane filtration technologies have been successfully applied for the treatment of many types of wastewater. In hydraulic fracturing operations, membrane processes can be applied as a cost-effective way of removing unwanted substances from flowback and produced water (FPW) and promoting its reuse in subsequent fractured wells. High degrees of fouling has been reported when raw FPW has been passed through membranes, suggesting the need for fluid pre-treatment. In this study, aeration was used as a pre-treatment method to improve filtration flux of polymeric membranes in microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) processes for an FPW sample collected from the Duvernay shale play located in Alberta, Canada. The pre-treatment not only enhanced FPW flux but also increased the rejection of targeted particles (Fe, Si), and reduced some of the potentially toxic organic and inorganic compounds in the filtered fluid. Additionally, the performance of four polymeric membranes including two polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) MF membranes (0.2 and 0.1 µm), one polyethersulfone (PES) MF membrane (0.22 µm) and one polyethersulfone UF membrane (0.03 µm) were compared using a dead-end filtration cell. In the first test, raw FPW was used as the feed water during the experiments, and in the second stage, aeration was first applied to the raw FPW, and the aerated water was then passed through the membranes. For all membranes, severe membrane fouling was found in the first 15 min when using the untreated FPW, with a very low rejection of Fe and Si (<10%). After the aeration treatment, the filtration flux decreased by less than 20%, as compared to more than 40% in the raw FPW, while rejection of Fe and Si increased to more than 70%. No significant differences were found in the fouling mechanisms before and after filtration. The predominant fouling mechanisms were cake layer and intermediate pore blocking. Comparison of the four polymeric membranes revealed that the 0.2 PES membrane had the best flux and a similar rejection to the UF membrane. Therefore, the 0.2 PES membrane was used for further analysis such as quantification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and determination of the reduction of adverse effects on zebrafish embryos following aeration and filtration. This study highlights the key importance of pre-treatment when using membrane technologies to treat FPW, and further demonstrates the positive environmental implications of the two-step process developed here.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Spring 2019
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.