May 8, 2014
Treating water in the oil sands with electricity instead of chemicals
Researchers at the Schulich School of Engineering are developing an electrochemical process to remove and destroy contaminants from treated water without adding chemicals or producing secondary wastes鈥攁 process that will reduce costs, increase recycling of water and decrease environmental impacts in the oil sands.
鈥淥ne of the ways to treat water is to add chemicals, we want to replace that by using electrical currents,鈥 says Ted Roberts in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. 鈥淵ou pass a DC current through the water that you鈥檙e treating and you carry out reactions to remove contaminants.鈥
Roberts and co-investigator, Maen Husein, have received CFI funding to set up a lab to develop sustainable electrochemical technology to treat produced water in the oil sands, such as the water that鈥檚 used for SAGD (steam-assisted gravity drainage) operations. 聽
Current chemical treatment processes produce secondary waste and sludges which need to be disposed of, whereas the electrochemical process will produce far less or no waste at all. The current process of adding chemicals to the water also makes it difficult for operators to recycle the water.
"With this electrical process, operators would add less chemicals to the water, and in principle we may be able to increase the recycle rates which means you鈥檙e fresh water demand is going to be lower,鈥 says Roberts. 鈥淵ou can take less water out of the Athabasca River鈥
The electrochemical process will use electrical energy, but that will generally cost less than chemicals used now. 鈥淲ith any new technology, you鈥檙e not going to get it implemented unless it鈥檚 cost effective or cost competitive with existing technologies,鈥 says Roberts. 鈥淪o although the environmental benefits are important you鈥檝e got to try to find a solution that鈥檚 cost effective.鈥
He says so far, the oil and gas industry doesn鈥檛 employ a lot of electrochemical technology, something that he hopes will change with the development of cost effective electrochemical technology to treat water.