Abstract
Flowback water from shale gas well drilling has a high TDS (total dissolved solids) content, ranging from 5000ppm to 261,000ppm, along with a TSS (total suspended solids) content of 300-3000mg/L. Recently, the rapid expansion of shale gas production in Marcellus Formation has raised serious environmental concerns about the large amount of flowback water in this area. A process based on ceramic membrane filtration and ion-exchange was studied for the treatment of the flowback water from Marcellus Formation. The studied process contains a combination of two MF (microfiltration) membranes, 1.4μm and 0.2μm respectively, and mixed bed ion-exchange. After treatment, all TSS and >99% of TDS were successfully removed from the flowback water to meet the criteria for surface discharge. The cost estimation of the treatment is approximately 18.4 $/m3, 40-70% lower than the cost estimate of the DEP(Department of Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 55-61 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Journal of Membrane Science |
| Volume | 431 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 5 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research work was financially supported by the Center for Applied Energy Research at the University of Kentucky .
Keywords
- Ceramic membrane
- Flowback water
- Marcellus formation
- Natural gas
- Process cost
- Shale gas
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biochemistry
- General Materials Science
- Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
- Filtration and Separation