Produced Water Treatment by Micellar-Enhanced Ultrafiltration

A water treatment approach combining ultrafiltration (UF) and micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) techniques was used for the removal of organic contaminants in field produced water samples from Canada and the United States. Free oil droplets and suspended solids were separated by initial UF treatments while MEUF was necessary for the removal of dissolved organics. It was shown that the amphiphilic characteristics of some organics commonly existing in produced water contributed to lowering the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the surfactant employed. Lower surfactant concentrations could, therefore, be employed leading to lower fouling and back contamination and higher permeate flux. In addition, the incorporation of organic contaminants into the structure of cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) micelles resulted in larger size and higher dissolution capacity of the mixed micelles. The performance of polymeric and ceramic membranes of different molecular weight cutoffs (MWCOs) was evaluated by analyzing the permeate flux, recovery ratio, and solute percent rejection as functions of trans-membrane pressure (TMP). A mathematical model based on Darcy's law and the resistance in-series model successfully described the flux decline as a function of TIMP for the two field samples and the two membranes studied.