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Impact Overview: Produced Water Injection

13/12/2011

42 Comments

 
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The problem of how to dispose of the very large volumes of ‘associated water’ (the water produced during gas extraction) is one of the key CSG environmental issues. The quality of the produced water is quite variable but is generally more saline than the shallower aquifers used for stock and domestic supply. Unless directly injected back into the coal seams (which is not an options during gas extraction) the produced water is treated through a range of stages, including reverse osmosis (RO), to remove dissolved salts, metals and a range of other dissolved components.

Interestingly, the treated water coming out of this process is often too clean to discharge as it can cause harm to aquatic ecology. To overcome this, treated water is blended with partially treated water (water treated through all other stages except for RO) to make it more suitable for it’s intended use.

While disposal of treated waste water to rivers and streams has been permitted in the Surat and Bowen Basin, it is generally preferable to find more beneficial uses and more responsible long term solutions for the water.

DERM guidelines prioritise the disposal options that should be favoured. The most preferable option is that produced water be either provided as a substitution for a licensed groundwater allocation (ie. providing the water to local landholders to reduce their own groundwater requirement) or to inject it back into a local aquifer. Given the large volumes of produced water, injection will ultimately be required in addition to providing a supply to the local community.

The main benefit of injection for landholders and the environment is that it works towards balancing the net loss of groundwater and can be directed to mitigate the drawdown effects in shallower aquifers. Injection can be targeted to specific aquifers and areas that groundwater models have predicted drawdown effects may occur making this a useful tool to mitigate landholder impacts. Currently, the target aquifers have not been defined by any of the major operators but they would most likely include the Springbok and Hutton Formation aquifers, and potentially the Condamine River Alluvial aquifer. Various studies are under way to further define the viability of different injection methods and locations.

While this all sounds good so far, there are problems with the process. The quality of water being injected must be carefully monitored and matched to the quality of the formation it is being injected to. Differences in pH, salinity or mineral composition can result in range of chemical reactions that often result in minerals of the aquifer being dissolved, or new minerals being precipitated out effectively clogging the aquifer around the injection well.

However, the most pressing concern is the disposal options for the highly saline brine produced by the RO treatment process. This brine has a salinity similar to that of sea water. Several disposal options are being considered. Evaporation is not likely due to the risk of leakage from evaporation ponds impacting on shallow aquifers and DERMs avoidance of evaporative disposal. Shipping or piping the brine to the coast does not appear to be economically viable.

Currently, the most likely disposal option is the injection of the brine to a very deep, isolated formation that has no perceived value. The hard rock basement beneath the sedimentary aquifers is the most likely target. The brine injection wells would need to be fracked to improve the injection rates in the otherwise low permeability basement.

The potential for the brine to move into fresh aquifers is the key concern. This is generally considered unlikely as the brine is much denser than the other water and will sink to the bottom. Combined with the hydraulic isolation of the deep layers, this appears to be the most likely scenario.

Injection trials conducted by both DERM (focussing on the Condamine Alluvium) and the various operators are underway. I’ll offer a review of these reports when they’re released.


42 Comments
Coal Seam Gas News
16/12/2011 1:28am

The water treated by reverse osmosis you say becomes "too clean" must have only been slghtly salty. If it contained chemicals typicaly found in produced csg water, you have just defied known physics because reverse osmosis filtration has significant limitations and cannot remove all contaminants. The three mechanisms by which a molecule may be rejected by the membrane are size exclusions, electrostatic repulsion and hydrophopic adsorption, if the contaminats are smaller in size than water molecules they remain in the water. Chemicals unable to be succesfully treated bromoform, chloroform, naphathalene, nonylphenol, octylphenol, dichloroacetic acid, trichloroethylene, tris(2-chloroethyl)-phosphate. Low molecular weight, no polar, water solube solutes, such as methynol and ethylene glycol are also poorly rejected.

Even if you could do the impossible, there is no safe place to store the extracted salt, chemicals, heavy metals. Therefore the water cannot be treated to make it clean so CSG extraction should be stopped.

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09/04/2013 3:32am


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17/06/2013 12:13am

Managing the whole fracing process is extremely important - for the land owners and for the environment.

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Inside CSG
16/12/2011 3:31am

Thanks for the comment Coal Seam Gas News. I share your concern with the safe storage/disposal of brine. However, your other comments need discussion.

You'll see in my article that I say reverse osmosis is the final state of the treatment process. It is used specifically to reduce the total dissolved solid content of water. This produces water of approximately 70-80 mg/L TDS and a relatively large volume of brine (which is my concern).

Removal of other contaminants are handled during pre-treatment. This is not technical difficult and, thankfully, does not require me, or anyone else to defy physics.

To put your comments in context: none of the chemicals you listed occur naturally in groundwater removed from the coal seams. Some would probably be introduced during fracking. Others will not.

Most of the chemicals you've listed are very easily removed from water through methods much less complex than RO. One of the more nasty ones you've listed, trichloroethylene, can be very readily treated by activated carbon or even controlled oxygenation of the water.

Hope this clears things up.

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Coal Seam Gas News
16/12/2011 3:50am

Sounds expensive! Gas needs to be cheap!

Can we store the extracted chemicals and salt piles at your house?

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InsideCSG
16/12/2011 4:16am

RO treatment is relatively expensive but not so expensive as to make the whole industry less economical. Water treatment will not come as a surprise to any operator.

If the brine can be contained, then it could be considered safe. Once it's in place and isolated, it's unlikely to move. In the Bowen Basin, the deepest aquifers are saline and are widely accepted to be relic groundwater not in ready connection with the shallower aquifers.

Unfortunately the geology does not actually exist in the simplified way we picture it. All it would take is a fault, fracture or pathway to allow the brine to migrate upwards to productive aquifers during injection.

I share your concerns and dont think that brine injection is a great idea, particularly if the basement of the Surat Basin is the target. 1) it would require more fracking. 2) fracking increases the risk of communication across confining layers.

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Injection wells are usually constructed of solid walled pipe to a deep elevation in order to prevent injectate from mixing with the surrounding environment. Thanks for sharing.

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Unlike outfalls or other direct disposal techniques, injection wells utilize the earth as a filter to further clean the treated wastewater before it reaches the receiving water. This method of waste water disposal also serves to spread the injectate over a wide area, further decreasing environmental impacts. Thanks.

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RO treatment is relatively expensive but not so expensive as to make the whole industry less economical. Water treatment will not come as a surprise to any operator.

If the brine can be contained, then it could be considered safe. Once it's in place and isolated, it's unlikely to move. In the Bowen Basin, the deepest aquifers are saline and are widely accepted to be relic groundwater not in ready connection with the shallower aquifers.

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To overcome this, treated water is blended with partially treated water (water treated through all other stages except for RO) to make it more suitable for it’s intended use.

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