Water management and produced water treatment in oil sand plant: A review

Water management in oil and gas production industries is one of the important issues due to the requirement of huge amount of freshwater in process and generation of large amount of waste stream called produced water (PW), which is 70 % of total wastewater. Due to the PW is the largest waste stream generated from oil and gas production process, the recycle of produces water can reduce the supply of freshwater from other sources of water such as river and lake, and negative influence on environment caused by water intake and disposal of the PW. In order to recycle/reuse the PW, it is commonly treated by physical, chemical and biological methods such as adsorption, flotation, sand filter, evaporation, electrodialysis and membrane-based processes. This review focuses on the research state of conventional and emerging technologies for water management in oil sands field for treatment of PW. It also addresses the real water management strategies in oil sands plant in Canada. The new strategies for water management are discussed through the comparative analysis on the current state of technologies and strategies.