Evaporation and Crystallization Technology for the Oil & Gas Industry

Evaporation and crystallization technologies from HPD are effective treatment of effluents generated from oil and gas field production, including enhanced or unconventional recovery methods.

Designed specifically for the unique requirements of this industry, these processes recover large volumes of water for beneficial reuse, minimize waste volumes, and provide flexible options for solid waste disposal for applications such as:

• SAGD (steam-assisted gravity drainage) produced water treatment
• Treatment of wastewater from unconvetional gas production including high-TDS produced water from shale gas fracturing
• Effluent from gasification processes such as G-T-L and IGCC 
• Refinery and upgrader wastewater requiring Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD)

HPD has developed several solutions specifically to address the challenges of SAGD produced water treatment. These novel process and engineering designs address some of the major issues facing producers.

 These innovations include:

• Proprietary Vapor Washer design in evaporation equipment increases distillate quality for use in drum boilers by preventing salts and other undesirable solids from entering boiler feed water
• The Silica Sorption Process by evaporation (patent pending) that drastically reduces caustic / sodium hydroxide consumption (by a factor of 10) and removes silica from solution to produce a slurry suitable for economic on-site or off-site disposal as well as conventional ZLD systems
• Innovative, skid-mounted ,and modular solutions to provide simpler transport and installation of large-scale process equipment

Coal Seam Gas (CSG) Produced Water Treatment

The produced water removed during CSG production contains a unique group of constituents that can be challenging to treat for beneficial reuse in conventional thermal systems. HPD has developed specific process designs for CSG water utilizing advanced brine concentrator techology to reduce waste volumes and provide maximum recovery of clean distillate. This process greatly reduces chemical consumption when compared to conventional treatment schemes as well as produces high-quality condensate with control of the scaling that is associated with the unique chemistry of this wastewater.

Further concentration of the waste and greater recovery can be achieved through the addition of a brine crystallization system where the only waste is a solid salt cake for disposal.

Treatment of Produced Water and Flowback Water from Hydrualic Fracturing

 HPD has developed a proprietary process specifically designed for applications that have wastewater containing much higher TDS such ash hydraulic fracturing for shale gas. The process effectively manages the highly soluble brine to reduce system fouling and recovers high volumes of water for reuse.

Ideal for both flowback and produced water, this solution includes:

• Efficient removal sodium and calcium chlorides as well as the heavy metals in the effluent generated in shale gas production
• Only waste produced is a solid saltcake that passed TCLP testing, suitable for landfill disposal
• Eliminates the need for pretreatment (in the case of produced water from the Marcellus Shale region)
• Recovers greater than 95% of the wastewater for reuse
• Offered as a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) system

These systems can be offered as well-site or central treatment plants on a design-build basis. Plant operation and maintenance services are also available from Veolia Water, the world's largest operator of municipal and industrial water treatment facilities.

Cutting-edge production methods in the oil and gas industry, such as Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) and produced water treatment for boiler feed water, require stringent levels of effluent treatment to achieve environmental objectives to Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) and provide beneficial reuse as valuable makeup water.

HPD offers highly integrated ZLD systems as a total solution for oil and gas producers. Use of brine crystallizers, in addition to the brine concentration systems, removes nearly all of the solid contaminants from the process while further recovering valuable water for beneficial reuse.

Expertise provided by HPD treats these streams efficiently to minimize waste volumes while producing quality water for reuse through efficient evaporation and crystallization systems, often on a design-build basis.