OriginOil announces chlorine dioxide pre-treatment

OriginOil Inc., developer of Electro Water Separation™ (EWS), announced that in company testing, EWS was found to efficiently generate chlorine dioxide (CLO₂), an important pre-treatment step for frac flowback and produced water and other applications. The company intends to make this process part of its standard CLEAN-FRAC™ product offering.

“Chlorine dioxide can be generated using chemicals, but simpler and cheaper methods have broader application for the petroleum industry. In our research, we showed that, by using our existing proprietary process, we can indeed generate CLO₂ economically and without using chemicals,” explained Nicholas Eckelberry, OriginOil Chief Research Officer.

CLO₂ is used by the industry as a pre-treatment step to break the oil/grease emulsions, destroy chemical additives, and to kill bacteria. CLO₂ generation infrastructure is capital-intensive and results in high consumables use. Therefore, integrating CLO₂ generation into the normal process of treating flowback water without using chemicals can result in significant efficiency and cost improvements.

By using EWS, operators can produce CLO₂ to process water for re-use with the added benefit of no additional CLO₂ generator infrastructure requirement. Additional benefits of CLO₂ production within the EWS process flow are expected to not only help remove bacteria, but help save on capital costs of replacing pipe and other infrastructure, as CLO₂ is known to oxidize and destroy friction generating chemicals.

OriginOil President – Oil and Gas, Bill Charneski, commented: “I’m extremely pleased with this development. When combined with downstream processes, CLEAN-FRAC already offers a uniquely competitive way to treat flowback water to any level of purity required, and this breakthrough further differentiates us.”

A preliminary test was performed to demonstrate the feasibility of generating chlorine dioxide with EWS technology. An existing lab unit was operated at approximately 50 gpm, and a brine solution was injected, resulting in an effluent stream that showed a direct reading of chlorine dioxide 12 – 14 mg/l. The test results are available to prospective customers and licensees.

“At this time, both the known chemistry and the current analysis strongly support the conclusion that chlorine dioxide was electrochemically produced directly into the treated water stream at mg/l concentrations using only naturally occurring salt as a reagent,” Eckelberry continued.

“I would like to thank our Director of Field Operations, Dave Anderson, for running an outstanding test which indicates an exciting future for this technology.”

Adapted from press release by Katie Woodward

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/10072014/originoil_breakthrough_pre-treatment_process_1014/