Textured Ceramic Membranes for Desilting and Deoiling of Produced Water in the Permian Basin

One of the largest by volume byproducts created during oil extraction and refinement is known as produced water. Produced water contains high concentrations of microscopic oil droplets, silt and additives which pose a threat to not only local ecosystems but can also contaminate water reservoirs. Fine oil microemulsions suspended in this produced water represent a high entropic hurdle, which has caused current treatment methods to be energy demanding and inefficient. This research investigates the usage of textured ceramic membranes to provide low energy cost filtration and a sustainable alternative to current treatment techniques. Higher order structures (ettringite needles) were created on the surface of membranes using calcium sulfoaluminate and glass spheres. These high surface area structures provided oleophobicity while still presenting strong hydrophilicity, trapping oil droplets and sediment. The unique properties of these membranes drastically reduced oil concentration (1 ppb) with 99.7% separation efficiency while still maintaining high flux rates (1600 L·h-1۰m-2, at approximately 2.7 bar). Mechanical testing showed high resilience to abrasion while retaining its abrasion resistance over multiple cycles.