Method for removing calcium, barium, magnesium and strontium from frac flowback

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9828262-B2
Application number	US-201313829576-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2013
Priority date	Mar 26, 2012
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

Abstract

A method of removing barium, calcium, strontium, and magnesium from frac flowback. A sulfate reagent and carbonate reagent are mixed with the frac flowback, causing barium, calcium, strontium, and magnesium to precipitate. The precipitants are crystallized and the resulting frac flowback and crystals are separated into relatively heavy solids and a stream of relatively light solids. The stream of relatively light solids is subjected to a further separation process that produces sludge that is recycled to aid in the crystallization process and a treated effluent which is recycled to the fracking operation or collected and used in another fracking operation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of recovering and treating frac flowback by removing hardness and suspended solids from the frac flowback, the method comprising:
treating the frac flowback to reduce the concentration of the hardness ions in the frac flowback, treating the frac flowback comprising:
i. directing the frac flowback into a reactor and mixing the frac flowback with a sulfate salt;
ii. after mixing the sulfate salt with the frac flowback, directing the frac flowback…

Assignees

• Veolia Water Solutions & Tech

Inventors

• Blumenschein Charles D
• Hess Mark W
• Banerjee Kashi

Classifications

• C02F11/127

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• C02F2103/10

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• C02F1/38

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• C02F2305/12

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• C02F5/02

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic