Technical Analysis of Water Management Approach in the Oil Industry for Concentrated Brine Resulting from Low-Temperature Distillation Technology
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Abstract
The development of hydraulic fracturing (HF) in unconventional reservoirs has caused water production to increase over the years, forcing companies operating in the Montney Formation to inject more produced water (PW) into disposal wells. A novel distillation technology seeks to change the status quo of PW management by producing distilled water and concentrated brine from PW. This project explores the environmental impacts and technical feasibility of injecting the concentrated brine in the Leduc Formation by fluid-fluid chemical simulations using OLI Flowsheet ESP software. The results indicate that the technology generates environmental benefits such as GHG emissions reduction, freshwater consumption, and injection of less volume of PW. However, it was evidenced that the concentrated brine generates precipitation of solids in the form of scale. Further investigation using reservoir numerical simulation is recommended to compare the magnitude of the impact generated on the formation when injecting the concentrated brine.