Open AccessOnline Produced Water Treatment Catalog and Decision Tool
Author(s) -
John R. Arthur
Publication year - 2012
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/1054512
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , the internet , decision support system , business , computer science , operations research , engineering , world wide web , data mining , philosophy , epistemology
The objective of this project was to create an internet-based Water Treatment Technology Catalog and Decision Tool that will increase production, decrease costs and enhance environmental protection. This is to be accomplished by pairing an operator's water treatment cost and capacity needs to specific water treatments. This project cataloged existing and emerging produced water treatment technologies and allows operators to identify the most cost-effective approaches for managing their produced water. The tool captures the cost and capabilities of each technology and the disposal and beneficial use options for each region. The tool then takes location, chemical composition, and volumetric data for the operator's water and identifies the most cost effective treatment options for that water. Regulatory requirements or limitations for each location are also addressed. The Produced Water Treatment Catalog and Decision Tool efficiently matches industry decision makers in unconventional natural gas basins with: 1) appropriate and applicable water treatment technologies for their project, 2) relevant information on regulatory and legal issues that may impact the success of their project, and 3) potential beneficial use demands specific to their project area. To ensure the success of this project, it was segmented into seven tasks conducted in three phases over a three year period. The tasks were overseen by a Project Advisory Council (PAC) made up of stakeholders including state and federal agency representatives and industry representatives. ALL Consulting has made the catalog and decision tool available on the Internet for the final year of the project. The second quarter of the second budget period, work was halted based on the February 18, 2011 budget availability; however previous project deliverables were submitted on time and the deliverables for Task 6 and 7 were completed ahead of schedule. Thus the application and catalog were deployed to the public Internet. NETL did not provide additional funds and work on the project stopped on February 18, 2011. NETL ended the project on March 31, 2012