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Application of ceramic membrane and ion-exchange for the treatment of the flowback water from Marcellus shale gas production

  • Qiying Jiang
  • , Jeffrey Rentschler
  • , Roger Perrone
  • , Kunlei Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

112 Scopus citations

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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)55-61
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Membrane Science
Volume431
DOIs
StatePublished - 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 .

Funding

This research work was financially supported by the Center for Applied Energy Research at the University of Kentucky .

Funders
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

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