Water. desalination + reuse

May/June 2014

Water. Desalination + reuse

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May-June 2014 | Desalination & Water Reuse | 21 | projects _________ Petr Sudilovskiy and Dave Ciszewski GE Power & Water, Water & Process Technologies and Ilshat Valiullin, RusGazEngineering ___ Editor's Note: Expected to come online at the end of 2015, the multi-effect steam-driven evaporation system provided by GE will allow a Russian oil-producer to recycle its water from the enhanced oil recovery in the treatment of heavy oil produced water OPERATED BY Russia's second largest oil producer, a heavy oil field in northwest Russia has been increasing the volume of crude processing with technology that supports enhanced recovery rates and reduced environmental impact. In 2008, they took the first steps to develop a less water-intensive way of processing produced water by conducting a feasibility study comparing different water reuse strategies. By replacing traditional treatment methods with thermal evaporator technology for produced water, this will be the first entity in Russia to use recycled water from enhanced oil recovery in the treatment of heavy oil produced water. DeSIgnIng the rIght SyStem Enhanced oil recovery requires 100% quality steam to be injected into the well. To produce such steam using drum boilers, a series of vapor-liquid separators separate the liquid water from the steam. The 100% quality steam is then injected into the well and the separated water is disposed of via deep-well injection. RusGazEngineering (RGE), a reputable EPC company in Russian's oil & gas industry, turned to GE Power & Water, Water & Process Technologies to provide the technology to meet their customer's primary challenge – to find a source of water to feed boilers for steam-assisted enhanced oil recovery. GE's evaporation technology (brine concentrators and crystallizers) is used extensively in heavy oil- recovery operations around the world. In addition to a decade of experience in the oil and gas industry, RGE brings an extensive history designing, manufacturing, installing, and commissioning projects in Russia. As well as assisting GE with technology evaluations, RGE provided overall plant design, is handling equipment supply and will take the lead on balance of plant support. Engineers from GE and RGE compared solutions that involved various water treatment options. The typical treatment method for produced water is warm or hot lime softening, filtration, and weak acid cation exchange. But as was previously mentioned, enhanced oil recovery requires 100% quality steam and evaporation technology can be used to produce high quality boiler makeup water to maximize water recycling and reuse. More specifically, vertical-tube falling-film evaporators (brine concentrators) could help the oil producer lower lifecycle costs, minimize waste streams, and increase system reliability. Brine concentrators can recover up to 98% of the produced water as high- quality distillate (<10 ppm non-volatile inorganic total dissolved solids). The process also increases heavy oil recovery plant availability by 2-3%, directly increasing oil production. The use of a conventional boiler system (drum boiler) further extends the benefits of evaporator technology. In addition to eliminating the need for costly vapor/liquid separation equipment, the brine concentrator reduces the size of the boiler feed system by as much as 15% and reduces boiler blowdown by as much as 90%. A fIrSt of ItS kInD SolutIon Armed with this information and additional technology evaluations validating effectiveness, GE and RGE set out to develop the first heavy oil produced water recovery evaporator in Russia. Based on GE's brine concentrator treatment process, the evaporator system has a design capacity to produce 700 m 3 /h of distillate suitable to feed medium-pressure drum boilers. GE's patented evaporation technology was developed in the late 1990s. The technology can employ a proprietary contaminant reduction system for the production of superior distillate quality where required, enabling efficient and reliable operation of high- pressure (>70 bar) drum boilers. how It workS The multi-effect evaporator (brine concentrator) process is a five-effect falling-film evaporator system designed to produce 700 m 3 /h of high quality distillate Russian heavy oil recovery enhanced by water reuse

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