Development of novel graphene oxide based membranes for selective removal of inorganic salts from process-affected water in oil sand/downhole oil production

开发新型氧化石墨烯膜，用于选择性去除油砂/井下石油生产中受工艺影响的水中的无机盐

• 批准号: 514603-2017
• 负责人: Zeng, Hongbo
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Engage Grants Program
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=640589
• 关键词: Development; novel; graphene; oxide; based

Towards the manufacturing of saleable crude oil and derived products, petroleum producers worldwide face thedifficult task of separating complex mixtures of water, solids and oil, termed oilfield emulsions. Oilfieldemulsions produce excess of water in oil, corrosion and mineral scale in pipes. In order to decrease theseproblems, demulsifiers, scale and corrosion inhibitors are commonly used. Alberta oil sands mining operationsand downhole production release a huge amount of chemical processed water (PW). This enormous PWinventory has caused severe problems to the local environment and has posed a great thread to the humanbeings and the inhabited wildlife. In order to develop robust and viable methods to tackle this great challenge,oil sands industries and researchers highly rely on routine and accurate measurements on the PW samples byusing different analytical characterizations. However, it is extremely difficult to achieve accurate and reliablecharacterizations on the PW samples, especially when the concentration of desired components (such as scaleinhibitor and corrosion inhibitor) is much lower than the interfering species coexisting in PW. Usually, the PWsamples contain a high concentration of inorganic salts (high salinity), which can greatly interfere with theintricate measurements and even paralyze the devices. To date, there is still no effective way to reduce orremove the inorganic salts while simultaneously keeping target chemicals unaffected or unchanged in watersamples for further characterization. The main objective of this project is to develop a robust technology,based on graphene oxide membranes, to effectively remove most inorganic salt ions from industrialprocess-affected water while not affect the concentration of desired components (e.g., scale inhibitor andcorrosion inhibitor), thereby ensuring collection of sufficient and qualified process water samples for industrialanalysis as demanded. The fundamental interaction mechanism will be also investigated and the parameters forthe preparation of GO membranes will be further optimized so the technology would be applicable to variousprocess-affected water samples in oil sand and downhole oil production.

为了生产可销售的原油和衍生产品，世界各地的石油生产商面临着分离水、固体和油的复杂混合物（称为油田乳状液）的艰巨任务。油田破乳会使油中的水过量，腐蚀和管道中的矿物质结垢。为了减少这些问题，常用破乳剂、阻垢剂和缓蚀剂。阿尔伯塔油砂开采作业和井下生产释放出大量的化学处理水（PW）。这一巨大的植物群给当地的环境带来了严重的问题，也给人类和栖息的野生动物带来了巨大的威胁。为了开发出强大而可行的方法来应对这一巨大挑战，油砂行业和研究人员高度依赖于通过使用不同的分析表征对PW样品进行常规和准确的测量。然而，要对PW样品进行准确可靠的表征是非常困难的，尤其是当PW中所需组分（如阻垢剂和缓蚀剂）的浓度远低于共存的干扰组分时。通常，PW样品含有高浓度的无机盐（高盐度），这会极大地干扰复杂的测量，甚至使设备瘫痪。迄今为止，仍然没有有效的方法来减少或去除无机盐，同时保持目标化学品不受影响或不变的水样中进一步表征。该项目的主要目标是开发一种基于氧化石墨烯膜的稳健技术，以有效地从受工业过程影响的水中去除大多数无机盐离子，同时不影响所需组分的浓度（例如，阻垢剂和缓蚀剂），从而确保根据需要收集足够的合格工艺水样用于工业分析。同时，还将进一步优化GO膜的制备工艺参数，使该技术适用于油砂和井下采油中各种受工艺影响的水样。