Treatment of Oilfield Produced Water Using Biosorptive Methods

Abstract

This study investigated activated carbon from Banana peel and Luffa cylindrica biowaste for treating produced water. Banana peel and Luffa cylindrica waste were pretreated with alkaline of 5% NaOH concentrations to obtain Samples A and B respectively. Activated carbon was obtained by carbonizing another portion of adsorbents, using an impregnation ratio of 1:3 of H₃PO₄ for 24 hrs to obtain Samples C and D. The experimental runs were conducted using the batch adsorption method, where PW was treated using 0.15, 1, 1.5, and 2 g adsorbent dosage for 2, 4, and 6 hours. The results of the study showed that the concentration of TDS in PW after treatment achieved 66.2 %,76 %, 62.5 %, and 59.5 % reduction for sample A, sample B, sample C, and sample D, respectively. The TSS concentrations were found to reduce in decreasing order, reducing from 26.7 % to 21.2 % for samples A to D. Also, there were general reductions in the heavy metals’ concentrations in PW. Sample A led to 81.40% decrease in Zn, 68.8 % in Cu, 72.7 % in Ni, and 52.2 % in Fe. Similarly, sample B led to 70.9 %, 86.1 %, about 100 %, 4.6 % decreases in Zn, Cu, Ni and Fe, respectively. Sample C led to 85.7%, 88.29 %, 54.7 %, 52.18 % reductions in Zn, Cu, Ni, and Fe, respectively, while Sample D followed a similar trend with 89.1% decrease in Zn, 85.4% in Cu, 70.7 % in Ni, and 35.2% in Fe. It could be concluded that activated carbon adsorbents have better adsorption capacity than the modified adsorbent for the treatment of produced water in the reduction of TDS, TSS, and heavy metals.