Electrochemical water treatment processes for the oil and gas industry

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For every gallon of oil production, ca. 3 gallons of contaminated water are also generated, making watertreatment and recycling processes critical for Canada's economic and environmental vitality. We propose totreat such water using innovative processes that will increase water recycle rates, reduce treatment costs andminimize environmental impacts. Similarly mineral processing generate large quantities of contaminated water from flotation and similar separation processes. Current water treatment practices remove contaminants by adding chemicals, and produce large volumes of sludge that require disposal. Our proposed treatment will instead remove contaminants through electrochemical processes, in particular electrocoagulation, which can remove several contaminants in a single step. Application of electrocoagulation would significantly reduce the production of sludge, as well as the operating costs associated with chemical addition and the capital costs of multiple treatment operations. We propose to use in-situ visualization of the processes occurring in electrocoagulation to directly observe contaminants being removed. This approach will enable us to build a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of contaminant removal, and use this new understanding to drive innovation. These technologies will be further refined through modelling pollutant removal to identify performance-limiting factors. This iterative development, testing, and refining approach will drive intensification and innovation of the treatment technologies, and enable techno-economic evaluation and accurate scale-up. We are collaborating closely with a major oil and gas company, and a technology company, who will help guide the research towards viable solutions for implementation. Although our initial focus is on developing this technology for use in the oil and gas industry, these processes could be adapted for use in other water treatment applications including potable water, industrial waste water and grey water recycling. The understanding of the underlying mechanisms and performance-limiting factors developed through this research will enable optimization of the technologies for other applications.