Patent ID: 9540253
Date: 2017-01-10
CPC Classifications: C02F,E21B

Claim:
1. A water treatment method, comprising the following successive steps: (i) filtering water in a membrane filtration unit comprising at least one membrane filtration module, the water containing hydrocarbons in an amount of up to 1000 ppm and suspended solid materials in an amount of up to 200 mg/L; (ii) collecting a permeate and collecting a retentate at an outlet of the membrane filtration module(s); (iii) withdrawing at least one of: (a) solid material and (b) hydrocarbons, contained in the retentate collected after step (ii) in order to provide a treated retentate; (iv) recycling the treated retentate at the inlet of the membrane filtration module(s); and (v) providing a treated water flow from the permeate of the membrane filtration module(s), the treated water flow comprising less than 10 ppm of hydrocarbons and less than 10 mg/L of suspended solid materials, wherein the membrane filtration unit includes inorganic membrane filters in ceramic based Al