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ISSN Online: 2379-1748

ISBN Flash Drive: 978-1-56700-483-0

ISBN Online: 978-1-56700-482-3

4th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference
April, 14–17, 2019 , Las Vegas, NV, USA

Comparing three methods for waste natural gas-based water production: reverse osmosis, thermal desalination and atmospheric water harvesting

Get access (open in a dialog) pages 563-574
DOI: 10.1615/TFEC2019.ens.027959

要約

Natural gas worth more than 20 billion USD (4% of global production) is flared in oilfields globally, with the US ranked 4th among top flaring nations. Venting and flaring of gas are very common, due to an absence of economically viable alternatives. This waste gas can instead be used to produce water onsite for use in oil-gas production operations. This study analyzes and compares the technical performance of three methods to produce water using excess natural gas. The first method involves using this gas to power reverse osmosis systems that treat flowback water from oil-gas production wells. The second method involves using this waste gas to power thermal desalination units to treat flowback and brackish water. The third method uses waste gas-powered refrigeration systems to produce the cooling capacity to enable large-scale dehumidification-based water production from the atmosphere. The present work develops an improved version of the effectiveness-mass transfer units model to quantify the technical performance of excess natural-gas based reverse osmosis systems. The technical performance of reverse osmosis systems is compared with the other two methods. Advantages and limitations of these three methods are analyzed and discussed from a technical standpoint. The results of this work suggest that the attractiveness of these methods is location-specific and depends on certain technical and environmental parameters associated with the three water production technologies.