Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering

CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY

Development of Innovative Treatment Technologies for Reusing Produced Water for Oil and Gas Development in Northern Colorado

 

CASE STUDY

The advent of efficient technologies for extracting oil and gas from shale rock formations has led to a development boom in many parts of the country including areas in the west that are historically water-stressed. CIVE Assistant Professor Tiezheng Tong has been working to solve the difficult issues related to the reuse of produced water from oil and gas development, efforts that are hoped to lead to more water availability in areas such as eastern Colorado and western Texas. Dr. Tong’s research group has developed novel omniphobic membrane materials with exceptional wetting resistance that when used in a membrane distillation application have shown salt, organic material and boron removal efficiencies of greater than 99%. The membrane distillation process is the core of treatment sequence that will soon be tested at the pilot scale on-site at an oil and gas extraction facility.