Oil Exploration: Contaminated Flow Back Water - Texas

Biological Treatment Summary

The Situation

In an effort to reduce the amount of fresh water needed in fractionation (Frac) jobs, a company developed an on-site water recycling system that collected flow back water and circulated this through various filtration units and finally to an evaporator. They also wanted to reduce the amount of flow back water disposed into injection wells. Various admixes are used as fresh water is pumped into the frac well. On flow back, some of the organic admixes, bound to petroleum products, cannot be easily separated from the water and thus foul various filtration and evaporation equipment. Conventional flocculation provided some relief but proved to be too expensive.

Objective

Find a cost-effective means of removing target organic contaminants from the flow back water before entering filtration and evaporation systems.

The flow back water was treated with OBT® Oil Degradation Treatment while being held on site in frac tanks.

The Results

OBT® removed the organic contaminants and proved that the organic contaminants could be removed at much lower costs. Treated frac water was cycled through the system without clogging filters or heat exchangers.