IWC-12-54



# Field operation results for treatment of Frac Water with Aquatech’s MoVap TM



# , a mobile industrial distillation

CHUCK J. KOZORA & ROBERT BEALKO Aquatech International Corporation, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania

KEY WORDS: Oil & Gas, Marcellus Shale, Utica Shale, unconven tional gas, wellhead, flowback water, produced water, dewasted, wastewater, distilled water, brine water, wastewater minimization, recycle & reuse, Aquatech, Aquatech International Corporation, Pennsylvania, Departm ent of Environmental Protection, DEP, Total Dissolved Solids, TDS, evaporator, distiller, mobile, environment al impact, hydro fracturing, hydraulic stimulation

ABSTRACT: Paper highlights background, importance of, and impac t resulting from the 24/7 30-day field operation results for a water treatment rig named MoVap, essent ially a mobile industrial distiller, which operated in Masontown, a town within the Marcellus Shal e play and located in Southwest Pennsylvania.

Marcellus & Utica Water Management Challenges Historically, the primary choice for handling much of the waste water also referred to as flowback and produced water, generated during drilling operations was to transport the water volumes to nearby deep injection wells for disposal. For example, Table 1 shows the approximate wastewater di sposal volumes for the states of California, New Mexico, and Texas. As these states suggest, the availability of nearby disposal wells assured disposal with relative ease for the generated wastewater. Their availability and abundance made them the option of choice for management of the waste

water.

Table 1: Wastewater Disposal Activity (Reference #1)

State Permitted Disposal Wells BBL/Yr Injected

California 25,000 1.8 billion

New Mexico 903 190 million

Texas 11,988 2.2 billion

However, local availability of deep injection wells is not an option for many develop ing shale plays. Local

conditions can stress the need for alternative waste water management as the volumes of waste water grows. Specifically, the historical approach of using injection wells for disposal of the waste water is not always the ideal choice or the most economical. Some newer plays such as Marcellus and Utica have geological, regulatory, etc. fa ctors effecting the choices

and economics and are outlined in Table 2. Table 2: Quantity and distance of Deep Injection Wells

State No. of

Wells Relative

distance Relative Cost (transport +

dispose)

Pennsylvania 7 Short Low

West Virginia 70 Moderate to long Moderate

New York 5 Moderate to long Unknown

Ohio 177 Long High

The Marcellus and Utica plays span across much of the states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and some parts of New York. The play’s regional location yields a different wastewater management situation than historically applied in states such as California, New Mexico, and Texas. With few local deep injection wells, the distance traveled to reach them imposes both an economic burden and an environmental impact from transportation.

For states such as Pennsylvania, regulations and lack of a high number of local deep injection wells have driven the need for improved water management via enhanced water treatment located at or near the drilling operation. The market requires waste water treated locally and to a clean state for reuse as well as environmentally acceptable disposal. To assure the treatment is always local to the operation, the technology should have a high degree of mobility.Regulations effect alternative disposal options for Marcellus & Utica Shale Plays Disposal alternatives to deep injection wells are affected by the local r egulations. Pennsylvania regulations were approved in August 2010 and become effective January 2011, that imposed the criteria that Shale gas waste water for disposal must have, among other criteria, a TDS equal or less than 500 ppm. This level is set to protect the waterways and the aquatic life that they contain. Marce llus and Utica well wastewater will typically have TDS levels ranging from 40,000 to 100,000 for flow back and 200,000 to 300,000 ppm for production brine for operations involving horizontal fracturing and produced water. The regulation requires that waste water for disposal, other than via deep well injection, will require some form of treatment to meet the regulation.

As a result, surface discharge directly into streams and surface discharge indirectly via Publically Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) we re asked to not accept this material by the PA DEP unless the appropriate treatment technology is employed to yield water that meets the chemistry criteria.

The impact of regulations, the lack of local disposal wells, the cost of disposal for non-local disposal wells, and the lack of long-term sustainability of using the wells suggest that another approach to wastewater management much be used. That approach is recycle

& reuse of the waste water.

Numerous methods of reuse are available and most

include waste water treatment. As a recent hotbed of such activity for the Marcel lus and Utica shale plays, these reuse methods were previously highlighted in a 2010 paper for the IWC (reference #2). In brief, these methods included blending water, use of brine-tolerant chemicals, and a wide range of water treatments most of which were applied at cent ral treatment facilities. For providing a sustainable approach that holistically addresses all the water management challenges, including production, regulatory, environmental, and economic, the implementation of treatment by a mobile industrial distillation proves beneficial.

Mobile distillation technolo gy extends waste water

treatment benefits (Reference 3) Water management is a critical component to the ability to continue drilling into the natural resources available in Marcellus and Utica Shale plays. Wastewater treatment and recycle/reuse issues not only impacts the ability to continue drilling due to environmental and corporate social responsibility challenges but can also impact production achieved during the well development.

A distillation system advan ces the waste water treatment to distillate-quality levels for water reuse as well as disposal which is compliant with local regulations. Essentially, the water is cleaned of dissolved solids (TDS) such as barium, strontium, sodium, chlorides, etc. Regarding regulations for the state of Pennsylvania, the PA DEP has dewasted the distillate which improves storage and logistical management of the water for the Oil & Gas operators.

As further enhancement for local water management, the distillation system is inco rporated onto a trailer with wheels to maximize its mobility thereby enabling the treatment to be brought to or near the well pad of the Oil & Gas operator. This relocation of the treatment significantly reduces truc king requirements for the waste water and reduces expenses in the process.

One example of this technology is the MoVap TM unit produced and offered by Aquatech. This mobile unit can process variable flowback wastewater and return high quality distillate for r euse. The mobility assures that the wastewater processing occurs locally and maximizes cost savings. Table 3 listed below provides a visual representation of the system.

Table 3: An example of distillation system, Aquatech MoVap TM

The MoVap TM unit uses mechanical vapor recompression to supply the energy required to boil

feedwater. The feedwater en ters and is preheated by exchanging heat with distillate and concentrated brine discharging from the unit. The hot deaerated feedwater flows to the evaporator hotwell and enters the recirculation loop. MoVap® employs SPRAY-FILM® evaporation technology to concentrate the feedwater and produce high quality distillate.

Mobile Industrial Distillation Process In the summer of 2011, the mobile industrial distillation unit was placed onto the Appalachian Water Services (AWS) facility located in Ma sontown, a town based in Southwestern Pennsylvania and within the Marcellus Shale play. The AWS facility serves the oil & gas industry by treating shale gas waste water for filtration, i.e. totals suspended solids (TSS) removal as well as some chemical precipitation, but it does not treat to remove total dissolved solids (TDS). The mobile

industrial distillation unit wa s placed at the facility toaddress this component of treatment. The water output from the facility served as the input feed water to the treatment process offered by the distillation. This process flow is outlined in Table 4. As depicted, this treatment process was utilized for a continuous 24/7 operation over a 30 day time period.

The feed water to the unit is first conditioned for appropriate pH and with an anti-foaming agent and an anti-scalant agent. This step assures optimum performance and minimal maintenance. The

conditioned water then enters the unit for the evaporation / condensation step, i.e. recirculation loop,

as described above. Recircul ation continues until the concentrate reaches approximately 24%. Thus, output and yield are a function of feed water TDS level as outlined in Table 5. At his point, two outputs are produced: (1) a very clean water of distillate quality and (2) a lower volume 24% liquid concentrate. As outlined in Table 5, the yield of distillate varies directly with the feed TDS and typically ranged from 50 – 83%.

Table 4: Process flow diagram of the mobile industrial distillation process

Table 5: Output Yields as function of Feed Water Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)

Brine

Feed Feed
TDS Distillate

Flow 24% Conc.

Flow Distillate

Yield

gpm ppm gpm gpm volume %

30.0 40,000 25 5.0 83%

33.3 60,000 25 8.3 75%

37.5 80,000 25 12.5 67%

42.8 100,000 25 17.8 58%

50.0 120,000 25 25.0 50%

Mobile Industrial Distillation Performance The quality of the distillate produced by t he industrial distillation was consistently high with TDS typically below 200 ppm and this performance was observed for the entire length of the 30 day operation. A sample result is listed in Table 6 with a TDS of 70 ppm. This

water could be then be classified as dewasted and stored or beneficially reused for additional hydro fracing, beneficially used by other industries such as power generation, or disposed by a number of

avenues. The composition of the reduced volume liquid

concentrate is listed in Table 8. This material would be disposed of via a deep injection well, sent for further treatment via a crystallizer technology from which more high quality distillate would be generated, or, due to it higher specific gravity, be used as a completions fluid.

Table 6: Treatment Results for Distillate Output

Water Analysis

Parameter Inlet to MoVap Distillate quality

Total Dissolved Solids, ppm 64,100 70

Sodium (ppm) 17,101 <0.5

Chlorides 30,870 <28

Barium 60.2 <0.5

Calcium 1849 <0.5

Iron <0.5 <0.5

Magnesium 5.52 <0.1

Strontium 755 <0.1

Sulfates 8 2

Zinc 2.2 <0.1

Table 7: PA DEP versus Typical Water Chemistry Achieved by Distillation

Parameter PA DEP Chapter 95 MoVapTM

Treated Water

Total Dissolved Solids, TDS (ppm) 500 <200

Chlorides (ppm) 250 <100

Table 8: Treatment Results for Concentrate Output

Water Analysis

Parameter Results
7/13/2011 Results
8/10/2011

Total Dissolved Solids, TDS (ppm) 238,000 231,000

Chlorides (ppm) 187,000 158,000

Barium 180 1100

Calcium 44 320

Iron ND ND

Magnesium 1.3 0.2

Strontium 3500 3800

Sulfates 23.8 ND

Zinc < 1 NDMobile Industrial Distillation Benefits

A number of benefits are realized with the mobile treatment process, output of distillate-quality water, and

waste minimization of concentrate:

1. The mobility of the technology enables bringing the

water treatment to the s ource thereby enabling a significant reduction in trucks and their resulting

costs.

2. As of early 2012, for the state of Pennsylvania, distillate quality water is now dewasted by the PA DEP. The dewasted classification permits not only increased flexibility for di sposal options but also increased water storage and logistical options for beneficial reuse by O&G operators.

3. With the distillate dewasted, the level of risk both preserved and real, in handling the water has been

reduced. Water that m eets Pennsylvania and West Virginia DEP regulations should be highlighted as a positive attribute in waste water management and operations in general. It impresses upon the local communities that corporat e responsibility for the environment and local neighborhood is a priority.

4. The volume of wastewater is reduced by 50-83% which equally reduces the volume of required transportation (i.e. trucks) to an off-site treatment facility or to a deep injection well. As ~200 trucks are required to transport one million gallons of wastewater, the reduced tr uck traffic will also reduce carbon footprint, reduce road surface damage, and reduce dust and noise for the local community. All these effects are further favorable changes on their environmental effect.

5. The volume of distillate is increased by 50-83% which maximizes the water for recycle and reuse. This dual benefit reduces costs for trucking and disposal, as well as for purchasing fresh water. An evaluation of overall water management can highlight the level of economic savings that can be achieved by incorporating this approach into operations.

6. The distillate-quality stream produced from the distillation process has a Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) of less than 200 ppm which corresponds to an equivalent low level of components that can precipitate out of solution such as Barium, Strontium, Iron, and Sulfate. The near-absence of potential precipitation translates to the near absence of potential scaling down-hole on the fractures created in the rock. Without scaling, the openings of the fractures are maintained and allow the maximum yield of natural gas to be released

from the shale.

Conclusion

The treatment process, which utilizes industrial distillation, produces high quality water while also minimizing the volume of waste water. As a result a number of benefits are realized for O&G industry, environment, and local communities.

References and Acknowledgements

1. Web site of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Marcellus Home page, http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/de putate/minres/oilgas/new_for ms/marcellus/marcellus.htm

2. IWC paper #10-63, Water Management: Treatment of Frac Water at Wellhead , by Chuck Kozora, Aquatech International, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania

3. Rob Chapados, Senior Process Engineer, A quatech ICD for providing the MoVap technology

Author Information

Chuck Kozora is the Regional Business Development Manager fo r Aquatech International Corporation, based in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, United States of America. His focus and responsibility in this role is to address the flowback and produced water issues arising from the drilli ng and fracing of the Marcellus Shale play. His career experience includes over twenty-four years as a chemist of which eight years focused on water treatment from positions held at Sybron Chemicals, Calgon Carbon Corporation, and Aquatech. He holds an undergraduate degree in Chemistry (BS 1986, Penn State) and a graduate d egree in Colloids, Polymers, and Surfaces (MS 1990, Carnegie Mellon).

Rob Bealko joined Aquatech as field operations manager. He has more than 10 years of experience in water filtration systems, including oversight of a Marcellus Shale brine water tr eatment facility and as an environmental services consultant for major petroleum-producing com panies. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Bethany College.