Evaporation technology is an accepted method of treating oilfield produced water from enhanced oil recovery operations such as SAGD and CSS. This thermal process provides high-quality distillate as feed water for steam generation and allows the flexibility of using either traditional OTSGs (once-through steam generator) or drum-type boilers.
Veolia Water Technologies was selected to supply the produced water system based on a unique, robust process that met the performance objectives of the central processing facility. The overall system consisted of deoling equipment and a produced water evaporation and crystallization system. Veolia was also contracted to provide raw water treatment comprised of ultrafiltration (UF), SAC Ion Exchange, and Reverse Osmosis (RO). This system will treat well water for startup activities and will be transitioned to providing utility water for non-steaming use for the rest of the plant after startup.
This producer had strict requirements for the water treatment plant in order to meet the sustainability goals of the project. The system must achieve a recycle rate of at least 95% of the produced water treated from production. The solution must also include the utilization of a brackish underground water source as the majority supply of makeup water to the plant.
