Breaking Through Oilfield Wastewater Challenges: Sinokle’s Targeted Solutions
I. Core Challenges in Oilfield Wastewater Treatment
1. Difficulty in Breaking Stable Emulsified Oil
Problem: Crude oil and water form oil-in-water (O/W) or water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions, with oil droplet diameters of only 0.1-10 microns that cannot be separated by conventional static settling.
Impact: Results in excessive oil content in effluent (e.g., oil content in some oilfield wastewater reaches 15-20mg/L, far exceeding the discharge standard of ≤5mg/L), and clogs pipelines and formation.
2. High Difficulty in Degrading Toxic Substances
Problem: Wastewater contains sulfides, phenols, heavy metals and residual polymers, which are toxic or refractory to degradation.
Impact: Traditional biological treatment has low efficiency and even causes microbial death; chemical oxidation requires a large amount of reagents, leading to high costs.
3. Large Fluctuation in Water Volume and High Equipment Adaptability Requirements
Problem: Wastewater output varies greatly across different oil wells and production stages (ranging from several hundred mg/L to tens of thousands of mg/L), and the water quality components are complex (e.g., fluctuations in sand content and salinity).
Impact: Sudden load changes easily cause deteriorated treatment efficiency or equipment failures (e.g., membrane element clogging, surging pumping energy consumption).
4. High Sludge Treatment Cost
Problem: Sludge generated during treatment contains heavy metals and organic matter, requiring special treatment such as drying and incineration.
Impact: Sludge disposal costs account for 30%-50% of the total treatment cost, with the risk of secondary pollution.
II. Targeted Solutions
1. Emulsified Oil Treatment: Combined Process of Demulsification + Air Flotation + Filtration
Demulsification Technology:
Add demulsifiers (e.g., compound reagents of polyaluminum chloride and polyacrylamide) to coagulate tiny oil beads into large oil agglomerates through charge neutralization and adsorption bridging effects.
Optimize the dosing system: An intelligent demulsification system can automatically adjust chemical dosage according to wastewater oil content to improve demulsification efficiency.
Cyclonic Dissolved Gas Flotation Unit (CDFU) Technology:
The CDFU generates 5-50um micro-bubbles through pressurized dissolved air. Meanwhile, the centrifugal force from the cyclonic device strengthens the collision and adsorption between oil droplets and bubbles, forming gas-solid-liquid composites with lower density than water. The composites float up rapidly to the water surface under the dual effects of cyclonic shear and buoyancy, then are scraped off to achieve efficient oil-water separation.
Effect: Oil removal rate reaches over 95%, and the oil content in effluent is reduced to below 10mg/L.
KFM Activated Media Filter Technology:
Adopt KFM activated media independently developed by Sinokle to further intercept fine oil beads and suspended solids. Made of silica-based material via 60 special processes, the KFM activated media undergoes surface superhydrophilic modification, which provides sufficient contaminant adsorption and reaction interfaces. It is also easy to backwash and can be regenerated in only 10-15 minutes for a single backwashing.
Case: An oilfield gathering station adopting the combined process of demulsification + air flotation + filtration produces clear and transparent effluent that can be directly used for re-injection or greening irrigation.
2. Toxic Substance Treatment
Cyclonic Dissolved Ozone Flotation Unit (CDOF):
A patented high-efficiency ozone catalyst is used to convert ozone into hydroxyl radicals (·OH). With its strong oxidizing property, hydroxyl radicals transform toxic substances into non-toxic or easily separable forms, and break the chemical bonds of refractory organic matter (e.g., polymers, surfactants).
3. Response to Water Volume Fluctuation: Intelligent Control
Intelligent Control System: Real-time monitor influent water quality and volume, automatically adjust parameters such as aeration intensity and chemical dosage to optimize operational efficiency and reduce costs.
4. Sludge Treatment: Resource Utilization + Drying and Incineration
Resource Utilization: Conduct pyrolysis or extraction on oily sludge to recover crude oil and reduce resource waste.
Drying and Incineration: Dry and then incinerate heavy metal-containing sludge, equipped with a tail gas treatment system to achieve volume reduction and harmlessness.
III. Economic Optimization Measures
1. Chemical Optimization: Determine the optimal dosage of demulsifiers and flocculants through experiments to reduce chemical waste.
2. Equipment Maintenance: Regularly clean dissolved air releasers and check equipment sealing performance to prolong the service life of equipment.
