Patent ID: 8784660
Filing Date: 2014-07-22
Classification: C02F

Abstract:
1. A method of removing one or more inorganic salts from wastewater produced from a drilling site, the method comprising: collecting wastewater produced from a drilling site; introducing, into a bioreactor, the wastewater from the drilling site, wherein the bioreactor comprises one or more substrates and one or more bacteria coupled to the substrate, wherein one or more of the bacteria are capable of reducing the concentration of inorganic salts in water comprising at least 0.5% by weight of one or more inorganic salts; contacting the wastewater from the drilling site with the bacteria in the bioreactor; and removing at least a portion of the contacted water from the bioreactor, wherein the concentration of one or more inorganic salts in the removed portion of the contacted water is less than the initial concentration of one or more inorganic salts in the wastewater from the drilling site; wherein one or more of the bioreactors further comprise an oxygen inlet conduit and a diffuser coupled to the oxygen inlet conduit, wherein the method further comprises passing oxygen through the oxygen inlet conduit into the diffuser and through the diffuser into the bioreactor.