Produced Water Evaluation

Purpose

Evaluate the reuse of produced oil field water for irrigation, stockwater, or other potential uses such as industrial or municipal.

History

Treating produced oil field water is not a new concept.  Several other states have been using treated produced water to alleviate the need for disposal of this waste product.  Currently, Kansas is injecting produced water into the Arbuckle Formation where remaining disposal capacity in areas is becoming a growing concern. The Kansas Water Office (KWO) submitted a WaterSMART grant proposal to the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) for funding.The project will be located near Hardtner, KS, where a collection tank for an injection well is located.  The project will treat produced water for 60 days using a one of a kind piece of equipment to bring this water down to acceptable levels for irrigation or stockwater.  A sample collected in August of 2016 had chlorides at 120,000 ppm and boron at 17 ppm, these need to be reduced to 250 ppm and 4 ppm respectively to meet stockwater requirements.

Current Updates

The equipment has been fabricated at a facility in Tennessee and is in the final testing phase before mobilization to Kansas. Full system testing is expected to be completed the last week of October with mobilization of equipment to the site the first week of November.

Timeline

KWO secured the WaterSMART grant from the BOR in September of 2017. The initial contractor failed to produce a product. An alternate contractor was located in the spring of 2019 that had developed patented equipment however it was on a much smaller scale. The equipment has been scaled up and is in the final testing phase. The equipment is expected to be on the ground at the Hardtner site in November 2020. Once the system is fully operational it will be run for 60 days with water quality parameters being monitored continuously.

Funding

The total project submitted to the BOR is $1,299,175. Of this amount $1.1 million is in-kind in the form of equipment needed to treat the produced water. Grant money requested from the BOR totals $199,175.

Project Manager

Kirk Tjelmeland