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Membrane-based treatment of shale oil and gas wastewater: The current state of knowledge

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Abstract

Shale oil and gas exploitation not only consumes substantial amounts of freshwater but also generates large quantities of hazardous wastewater. Tremendous research efforts have been invested in developing membrane-based technologies for the treatment of shale oil and gas wastewater. Despite their success at the laboratory scale, membrane processes have not been implemented at full scale in the oil and gas fields. In this article, we analyze the growing demands of wastewater treatment in shale oil and gas production, and then critically review the current stage of membrane technologies applied to the treatment of shale oil and gas wastewater. We focus on the unique niche of those technologies due to their advantages and limitations, and use mechanical vapor compression as the benchmark for comparison. We also highlight the importance of pretreatment as a key component of integrated treatment trains, in order to improve the performance of downstream membrane processes and water product quality. We emphasize the lack of sufficient efforts to scale up existing membrane technologies, and suggest that a stronger collaboration between academia and industry is of paramount importance to translate membrane technologies developed in the laboratory to the practical applications by the shale oil and gas industry.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the start-up funds that T. T. received from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, at Colorado State University, as well as the Advanced Industries Accelerator Grant that T.T. and K.H.C. received from Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade and CSU Ventures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    Tiezheng Tong, Kenneth H. Carlson, Cristian A. Robbins, Zuoyou Zhang & Xuewei Du

Authors
  1. Tiezheng Tong
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  2. Kenneth H. Carlson
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  3. Cristian A. Robbins
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  4. Zuoyou Zhang
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  5. Xuewei Du
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Correspondence to Tiezheng Tong.

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Highlights

• Shale oil and gas production generates wastewater with complex composition.

• Membrane technologies emerged for the treatment of shale oil and gas wastewater.

• Membrane technologies should tolerate high TDS and consume low primary energy.

• Pretreatment is a key component of integrated wastewater treatment systems.

• Full-scale implementation of membrane technologies is highly desirable.

Author Biography

Dr. Tiezheng Tong is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University (CSU). Before joining CSU, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Yale University. He received his B.S. (2004) and M.S. (2010) degrees in Environmental Engineering from Beijing Normal University and Tsinghua University, and a second M.S. degree (2011) and a Ph.D. degree (2015) in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston. Dr. Tong’s research group utilizes interdisciplinary approaches to promote environmental sustainability at the water-energy-health nexus. His current research areas focus on developing novel membrane materials and processes for wastewater treatment and water purification, as well as understanding and mitigating mineral scaling in membrane desalination processes. He has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles and given more than 20 conference presentations internationally. He is the recipient of several professional awards including the Environmental Chemistry Graduate Student Award of American Chemistry Society, the Illinois Section of the ASCE Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI) Student Scholarship Award, and the Student Award from Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization. He also serves as an independent reviewer for more than 20 journals.

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Tong, T., Carlson, K.H., Robbins, C.A. et al. Membrane-based treatment of shale oil and gas wastewater: The current state of knowledge. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 13, 63 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-019-1147-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-019-1147-y

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