Removing Boron and 

Benzene from 

Produced Water

Bob Goltz, Produced Water Treatment Specialist 

Dow Energy & Water

May 2014
Agenda

• Dow’s comprehensive solutions across the 

oil and gas value chain

• Focus today on water treatment issues –

• Boron removal for recycle and reuse of 

Produced Water

• Benzene one of BTEX class of water 

soluble oil 

• How do we remove them

• What does it cost 

2
Solutions Across the Oil and Gas Value Chain

Solutions 

for:

• Drilling

• Cementing

• Stimulation

• Phase separation

• Asset integrity

• Flow assurance

• Gas injection

• Chemical flooding

• Thermal recovery 

applications

• Offshore flow 

assurance

• Gas 

recompression

• Gas dehydration

• Gas compressor 

engines

• Gas pipeline line 

heaters

• Onshore and 

offshore gas 

processing

• LNG

• Gasification

• Acid gas 

enrichment/sulfur 

plants

• Ammonia 

synthesis

• Acid gas removal

• LPG treating

• Isomerization and 

reformer 

regeneration

• Heat transfer

Our brands:

• EMBARKTM

• CELLOSIZETM

• ANTISOLTM

• POLYOXTM

• DEMTROLTM

• ROMAXTM

• ACCENTTM

• AQUCARTM

ELEVATETM

ROMAXTM

DOW FILMTECTM

DOW IntegraPacTM

• NEPTUNETM

• HYPERLASTTM

• NORKOOLTM

• DESITHERMTM

• UCARSOLTM

• SELEXOLTM

• NORKOOL 

DESITHERMTM

• DOWTHERMTM

• SYLTHERM†

• SulFerox®

• UCARSORBTM

• AMINE 

MANAGEMENTSM

Program

• UCARSOLTM

• SELEXOLTM

• UCARSEPTM

• ISOFORMTM

3
Products That Truly Perform for the End-user

DOWTMEDI 

Module

FILMTECTM 

RO Modules

DOWEXTM / AMBERTM

IER

DOWTM 

Ultrafiltration 

Module 

ADSORBSIATM Media
Water Problems for Produced Water Recycle 

5

The Problem

Treatment 

Option

Boron selective ion exchange resin

• Selective removal of Boron only

• Removal to <1 ppm

• Concentrated waste for disposal

• Automated systems offered 

Water Soluble Oils - BTEX –

semi soluble & semi volatile so 

evaporates from water into the air

Benzene Carcinogen – Regulatory 

If recovered can be sold to defray 

treatment cost

OPTIPORETM regenerable adsorbent

“Engineered activated carbon” 

• Removal to ppb levels 

• Steam regenerated to recover BTEX

• Hydrocarbons sold to defray cost of 

treatment

Boron is the cross linker used to “fix 

or set” the proppant into position. 

“Snot Balls” - Cross linked Guar -

cause problems. Need to remove 

boron to recycle produced water
Boron Selective Ion Exchange Resin

BSR is regenerated with acid, 

producing a concentrated boron 

waste for disposal 

Depending on boron concentration 

in feed water, waste can be 1-3% 

of feed water

Cost of treatment can be <$0.10 

per barrel 

BSR-1 Boron Removal Column Study 1

-20.000

0.000

20.000

40.000

60.000

80.000

100.000

120.000

140.000

160.000

180.000

200.000

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Bed Volumes FGD Solution

ppm Boron

Column Study 1

Column Study 2
Special Testing of AMBERLITETM IRA 743 for

Boron Removal from Produced Water

Feed water

• 55.9 ppm B

Treated water

• 0.065 ppm B

• 99.9% removal

Location Feed B (ppm) Treated B (ppm)

CO 20.6 0.9

JK 21.3 0.9

MM 15.2 1.4

GW 33.4 0.4

OK 63.7 0.1

Eagle Ford 55.9 0.06
Ongoing Monitoring of Media Life

High Sierra Anticline Disposal Facility Boulder, WY

Dow Boron Selective Resin has been in service for 3 years

Resin 

Properties

New Resin 

Sales Spec

Vessel A Vessel B Vessel C

WRC, % 51 - 59 58.0 57.8 57.9

TEC, 

meq/mL 

0.70 0.81 0.90 0.76

SSC, 

meq/mL

-- 0.00 0.00 0.00

WBC, 

meq/mL

-- 0.81 0.90 0.76

TEC as rec'd, 

meq/mL

-- 0.83 0.82 0.79

Organics, g 

C/ft3 

-- 45 138 76

Looks like brand new after 3 years!
Regenerable Adsorbent DOWEXTM OPTIPORETM L493

Good/fast adsorption capacity

Suited for steam regeneration

Simple process (adsorption)

No waste

Recovery of salable product 

(BTEX, phenols, etc) 

Less expensive

$0.02 – 0.10 /brl 
Schematic of OPTIPORE treatment
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500

mg/l

Liters

Toluene

Effluent

Influent

Toluene data

99.9% Removal 

at 600 BV 
Neptune Water Treatment Facility

Treated Water for 

surface discharge

>90% 

Raw Water Multi Media Filter

DOWEXTM 

OPTIPORETM L493

Acid/air strip CO2

Soften w/ DOWEXTM 

MAC-3

FILMTECTM 

SW30HRLE-370/34i

Waste Water for 

deep well disposal

<10%

Commissioning in June 2014

This first job....

25,000 bpd or 1 MM gpd

GE building system for Encana 

Site will be 2% of US gas production

Beneficial reuse of the water. 

Salable Ground Breaking Nov. 2013

Oil
Beneficial Reuse of Produced Water

Remove the 

• Particulate

• Free and dispersed oil

• Dissolved organics 

• Hardness/scale formers

• Boron removal

• RO if needed

TEQUATICTM 

Fine Particle 

Filter

NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC 2012
Recovery of NGLs from Flared Gas
Thank

You

®TMTrademark of The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) or an affiliated company of Dow

SMService mark of The Dow Chemical Company 

†Dow is a distributor of SYLTHERM, a registered trademark of Dow Corning Corporation

15

Bob Goltz

Dow Water & Process Solutions

989-636-2023

HRGoltz@Dow.com