Rare gases disposal

The hydrocarbon and chemical industries have traditionally been reluctant to immediately invest capital where direct return on the investment to the company is not obvious and apparent, as would any business enterprise. Additionally, fire losses in the petroleum and chemical industries were relatively small up to the 1950s. This was due to the small size of the facilities and the relatively low value of oil, gas, and chemicals to the volume of production. Until 1950, a fire or explosion loss of more than 5 million dollars had not occurred in the refining industry in the US. Also in this period, the capital-intensive offshore oil exploration and production industry was only just beginning. The use of gas was limited in the early 1900s. Typically production gas was immediately flared (i.e., disposed of by being burnt off) or the wall was capped and considered an uneconomical reservoir. Since gas development was limited, large vapor cloud explosions were relatively rare and catastrophic destruction from petroleum incidents was essentially unheard of The outlays for petroleum industry safety features... 

When hydrocarbons (crude oil, condensate, and natural gas) are produced, the wellstream typically contains water produced in association with these hydrocarbons. The produced water is usually brine, brackish, or salty in quality but in rare situations may be nearly "fresh" in quality. The water must be separated from the hydrocarbons and disposed of in a manner that does not violate established environmental regulations. Typically, the produced water is mechanically separated from the hydrocarbons by passing the wellstream through process equipment such as three-phase separators, heater-treaters, and/or a free-water knockout vessel. These mechanical separation devices do not achieve a full 100% separation of the hydrocarbons from the produced water. The produced water separated from the hydrocarbons in these mechanical separation devices will contain 0.1-10 vol.% of dispersed and dissolved hydrocarbons. Produced water treating facilities are used to further reduce the hydrocarbon content in the produced water prior to final disposal. 

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