An innovative de-oiling solution of produced water

A single process filtration-adsorption tower unit without use of coagulants for treatment of produced water was studied using test water containing emulsified oil. The filtration-adsorption tower unit consists of three layers and each layer is designed to remove oil and suspended solids with use of filtration-adsorption media. A backwashing process is applied to each layer to wash away accumulated oil and suspended solids. The result shows that high recovery rate of both oil and suspended solids is observed even under high concentration of oil and suspended solids in feed water and under high temperature condition. The test result indicates that the filtration-adsorption tower unit can be used as a simple, cost-effective solution of de-oiling of produced water offering appropriate quality of influent to polishing process of membrane treatment.