Electrochemical water treatment processes for the oil and gas industry

每生产一加仑石油，就会产生大约3加仑受污染的水，这使得水处理和回收过程对加拿大的经济和环境活力至关重要。我们建议使用创新的工艺来处理这些水，这将提高水的循环利用率，降低处理成本并最大限度地减少对环境的影响。类似的矿物加工也会从浮选和类似的分离过程中产生大量受污染的水。目前的水处理方法是通过添加化学物质去除污染物，并产生大量需要处理的污泥。我们提出的处理方法将通过电化学过程去除污染物，特别是电凝，它可以在一个步骤中去除几种污染物。电絮凝的应用将大大减少污泥的产生，以及与化学添加相关的运行成本和多次处理操作的资本成本。我们建议使用电凝过程的现场可视化来直接观察污染物被去除的过程。这种方法将使我们能够更深入地了解污染物去除的机制，并利用这种新的理解来推动创新。这些技术将通过模拟污染物去除来进一步完善，以确定性能限制因素。这种反复开发、测试和改进的方法将推动处理技术的集约化和创新，并实现技术经济评估和准确的规模扩大。我们正在与一家大型石油和天然气公司以及一家技术公司密切合作，他们将帮助指导研究，找到可行的解决方案。虽然我们最初的重点是开发该技术用于石油和天然气行业，但这些工艺可以适用于其他水处理应用，包括饮用水、工业废水和中水回收。通过本研究开发的对潜在机制和性能限制因素的理解将使其他应用的技术优化成为可能。

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.