Water saline

Hydrocarbon-water contact movement in the reservoir may be determined from the open hole logs of new wells drilled after the beginning of production, or from a thermal decay time (TDT) log run in an existing cased production well. The TDT is able to differentiate between hydrocarbons and saline water by measuring the thermal decay time of neutrons pulsed into the formation from a source in the tool. By running the TDT tool in the same well at intervals of say one or two years (time lapse TDTs), the rate of movement of the hydrocarbon-water contact can be tracked. This is useful in determining the displacement in the reservoir, as well as the encroachment of an aquifer. 

T. A. Orofino, Progress Report No. 549, Office of Saline Water Research and Development, U.S. Dept, of the Interior, Washington, D.C., May 1970. 

R. H. Moore, U.S. Office Saline Water, Research and Development Progress Report, 651, 1971, 87 pp. 

The seminal discovery that transformed membrane separation from a laboratory to an industrial process was the development, in the early 1960s, of the Loeb-Sourirajan process for making defect-free, high flux, asymmetric reverse osmosis membranes (5). These membranes consist of an ultrathin, selective surface film on a microporous support, which provides the mechanical strength. The flux of the first Loeb-Sourirajan reverse osmosis membrane was 10 times higher than that of any membrane then avaUable and made reverse osmosis practical. The work of Loeb and Sourirajan, and the timely infusion of large sums of research doUars from the U.S. Department of Interior, Office of Saline Water (OSW), resulted in the commercialization of reverse osmosis (qv) and was a primary factor in the development of ultrafiltration (qv) and microfiltration. The development of electro dialysis was also aided by OSW funding. 

Spira.1- Wound Modules. Spiral-wound modules were used originally for artificial kidneys, but were fuUy developed for reverse osmosis systems. This work, carried out by UOP under sponsorship of the Office of Saline Water (later the Office of Water Research and Technology) resulted in a number of spiral-wound designs (63—65). The design shown in Figure 21 is the simplest and most common, and consists of a membrane envelope wound around a perforated central coUection tube. The wound module is placed inside a tubular pressure vessel, and feed gas is circulated axiaUy down the module across the membrane envelope. A portion of the feed permeates into the membrane envelope, where it spirals toward the center and exits through the coUection tube. 

S. Loeb and S. Sourirajan, "Sea Water Demineralisation by Means of an Osmotic Membrane," in Saline Water Conversion-11, Fidvances in Chemistry Series Number 28, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., 1963. 

The polymers exist in saline solution as tightly coiled chains and are readily adsorbed owing to relatively low solubiUty in hard water. Subsequent injection of soft, low salinity water uncoils the adsorbed polymer chains increasing water viscosity and reducing rock permeabiUty. This technology could also be used to reduce the permeabiUty of thief 2ones adjacent to injection wells. However, mechanical isolation of these 2ones may be necessary for cost-effective treatments. 

The substantial decrease of polyacrylamide solution viscosity in mildly saline waters can be uti1i2ed to increase injection rates. A quaternary ammonium salt polymer can be added to the polyacrylamide solution to function as a salt and reduce solution viscosity (144). If the cationic charge is in the polymer backbone and substantially shielded from the polyacrylamide by steric hindrance, formation of an insoluble interpolymer complex can be delayed long enough to complete polyacrylamide injection. Upon contacting formation surfaces, the quaternary ammonium salt polymer is adsorbed reducing... 

If it is not dissolved or trapped, an embolism moving from the lower extremities can be life-threatening. People afflicted with phlebitis are particularly susceptible to this problem. A shape-memory trap has been devised that, when deployed in the vena cava, is like a multileaved mesh that traps a traveling embolism, retaining it until medication can dissolve it. Introduced in a folded form by a catheter, the mesh is prevented from deploying by subjecting it to a flow of cold saline water. Once in place, it is released from the catheter and, warmed by body heat, opens into its final shape (11). 

Saline Water for Municipal Distribution. Only a very small amount of potable water is actually taken by people or animals internally, and it is quite uneconomical to desalinate all municipally piped water, although all distributed water must be clear and free of harmful bacteria. Most of the water piped to cities and industry is used for Htfle more than to carry off small amounts of waste materials or waste heat. In many locations, seawater can be used for most of this service. If chlorination is requited, it can be accompHshed by direct electrolysis of the dissolved salt (21). Arrayed against the obvious advantage of economy, there are several disadvantages use of seawater requites different detergents sewage treatment plants must be modified the usual metal pipes, pumps, condensers, coolers, meters, and other equipment corrode more readily chlorination could cause environmental poUution and dual water systems must be built and maintained. 

Water in Industry. Freshwater for industry can often be replaced by saline or brackish water, usually after sedimentation, filtration, and chlorination (electrical or chemical), or other treatments (22). Such treatment is not necessary for the largest user of water, the electric power industry, which in the United States passed through its heat exchangers in 1990 about 40% of the total supply of surface water, a quantity similar to that used for agriculture, and it was 48% of the combined fresh and saline water withdrawals (10). Single stations of 1000 MW may heat as much as 12 Mm /d by as much as 10—15°C. 

Saline waters, including seawater, contain, besides a variety of inorganic salts, also organic materials and various particles. They differ in composition from site to site, and also change with time as a result of both natural and human causes. Design and operation of desalination plants requires good knowledge of the saline water composition and properties (41,44). 

Therefore, 12.37 kg saline water are needed in this case to produce 1 kg distillate. This high dow rate incuts corresponding pumping equipment and energy expenses, sluggish system dynamics, and, because the stream level depth is limited to about 0.3—0.5 m for best evaporation rates, also requites large evaporator vessels with their associated expense. 

The generated water vapor rises through a screen (demister) placed to remove entrained saline water droplets. Rising further, it then condenses on the condenser tube bank, and internal heat recovery is achieved by transferring its heat of condensation to the seawater feed that is thus being preheated. This internal heat recovery is another of the primary advantages of the MSF process. The energy performance of distillation plants is often evaluated by the performance ratio, PR, typically defined as... 

Because water of depths below about 2 m does not absorb much solar radiation direcdy, the radiation is absorbed and converted to heat primarily in the basin floor, which thus should have high radiative absorptance in the solar radiation spectmm. It is also noteworthy that if the stUl is designed to have low heat losses to the ambient, and if the ambient temperature drops, distillation will continue for some time even in the absence of solar energy input, because the saline water may remain warmer than the condensing glass surface and thus continue evaporating. 

H.-G. Heitman, Saline Water Processing, VCH PubHcations Inc., Weioheim, Germany, and New York, 1990. 

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