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Selective Element Recovery from Oil Field Brines
Author(s) -
Angino Ernest E.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/wr006i005p01501
Subject(s) - brine , sulfate , bauxite , magnesium , sulfur , oil field , chemistry , environmental science , carbonate , mineralogy , environmental chemistry , geology , petroleum engineering , organic chemistry
With the attention now being focused on the two problems of water pollution and usage and natural resource utilization, the recovery of compounds dissolved in subsurface brines takes on greater importance with each passing year. More than 325 billion gallons of oil field brines (∼ 8 × 10 9 barrels) are brought to the surface yearly in the United States. Most of these brines are wasted and/or are returned to the subsurface without any attempt of stripping the contained salts. The volume of this brine is such as to warrant greater consideration of the economic feasibility of extracting much, if not all, of the dissolved components therein. In many instances the salts dissolved in oil field brines could be extracted profitably, if modern extraction techniques were used or refined. Simple extraction processes for soda ash, sodium carbonate, caustic soda, magnesium and calcium sulfate, trace elements and others are available. For example, sulfur can be recovered by using a barium resin to precipitate the sulfate as BaSO 4 , which can then be made to yield sulfur by a short four step conversion process. Magnesium can be precipitated in the hydroxide form and selected trace elements can be scavenged and concentrated by ferric iron precipitation.