PROBLEM STATEMENT: A Darcy member from the upstream industry is actively searching for desalination companies currently operating in the market. Their goal is to compile a comprehensive list of these companies for comparison and potential pilot projects. They are particularly interested in desalination technologies suitable for treating produced water or even for use at their clean brine facility, depending on the specific product offerings. This customer reuses a large percentage of its produced water for hydraulic fracturing. There is an increasing emphasis from both management and industry headlines on the adoption of beneficial reuse and desalination technologies, terms which are sometimes used interchangeably.

FROM THE RESEARCH TEAM

Below is a summary and supporting materials for the different solutions in the desalination space. Figure 1 depicts where some of the mentioned companies lie in the water quality vs cost graph.

Figure 1: Industry Evolution for Produced Water Management Source: Darcy Insights - Clean Brine Recycling for Hydraulic Fracturing (slide 6)

It is important to note that each of these companies offers a unique approach to the problem. As a result, we highly recommend discussing potential solutions to better match them with your specific requirements. The contents include frameworks we have created, forums we hosted that discussed similar topics, and relevant innovator storefronts tailored to address this specific challenge.

HyQ Technologies: The primary appeal of HyQ lies in its innovative approach of repurposing equipment from other industries, while collaborating with a highly reputable supplier, Alfa Laval, which is well-regarded in the agricultural and mineral processing sectors. Achieving zero liquid discharge is an intriguing prospect in certain applications, setting HyQ apart in the desalination market.

CCR: The distinguishing factor for CCR is its design, which is intended for utilization in conjunction with waste heat. Moreover, the heat exchanger and contact surfaces are specifically engineered to prevent solids from coming into contact with exchanger surfaces. Consequently, this has the potential to lower costs when a source of waste heat is available.

• CCR Pilot Report to NMPWRC

Sylvan Source: The key attraction of Sylvan Source is their patented heat exchange devices, which promise increased efficiency and reduced size compared to conventional heat exchangers. Although the company is also pursuing heat exchangers for industrial settings, they have identified evaporation as a potential showcase for their heat exchange technology. As the cost and efficiency of an evaporator largely depend on the heat exchanger size and temperature approach, more efficient heat exchangers can result in smaller units to decrease costs and/or have a closer temperature approach, allowing for additional stages and increased evaporation per unit of heat input.

• Sylvan Source Tech Test Report

Fluid Technology Solutions - Water treatment company specializing in advanced membrane technologies for treatment of produced and flowback water. Capable of generating drinking water quality permeate.

• OsmoBC™️ Integrated Membrane Systems Overview

Veolia – Although Veolia is an established player in the market is relevant to mention their project with CNRL.

• Conventional Reverse Osmosis to Further Reduce Fresh Water Use: Primrose and Wolf Lake operations, Veolia is deploying conventional reverse osmosis technology for saline water treatment. The higher quality, treated water will be used as make-up boiler feed water, reducing impacts to surface facilities and improving well productivity. This project, will help the company reduce fresh water use at the plant, is targeted to be commissioned by the end of 2022.

ROTEC – Provides water treatment solutions using flow reversal technology to improve the recovery in reverse osmosis systems. Most of the experience of this company is on the food and beverages and municipal wastewater space.

• ROTEC Desalination Projects

Water Standard – Provides technological solutions for treating flowback or produced water for recycling, disposal, or discharge. They have completed treatment projects in 35 countries both onshore and offshore.

• Water Standard Case Study on High Purity Water Generation System

Evove – provides graphene-based enhancements to conventional membranes that improves water treatments. The company is renewing their portfolio based on 3d graphene printed tech.

• Enhance and Separonics product line for desalination
• Evove portfolio presentation

We can collaborate on doing deeper dives for companies of interest and searching for additional options that may exist in the space. It is important to note that the costs associated with these innovative solutions will inevitably be higher than those of traditional reuse and recycling methods. Nevertheless, these technologies possess the potential to mitigate expenses. Achieving a cost-competitive position with disposal methods, however, remains challenging, except in exceptional circumstances such as regions with low total dissolved solids (TDS) in water, as in California, or areas with expensive disposal procedures, as in Pennsylvania.

EVENTS

Below is a list of our recent forum coverage on water treatment for your reference as well.

• Improve Produced Water Quality and Avoid Chemicals with TruClear (Feb 2023)
• Clean Brine Recycling for Hydraulic Fracturing with Prodigy (Nov 2022)
• Trends in Oilfield Water Management with RedOx Systems (Oct 2022)