Filtration of Water Supply for Hydraulic Fracturing, USA
Country
USA
Application
Oil & Gas
Water source
River Basin
Filtration solution
6 x EBS10K (100 micron)
Background
The customer is one of the largest Oil & Gas operators in the Denver- Julesburg Basin in Northern Colorado. As this field can include residential areas adjacent to drilling operations, it was important for the company to minimize the effect of operation on their neighbors. Instead of trucking water to the drilling sites, they installed several permanent pump/filter stations with an underground pipe distribution network. This network includes 150 miles of pipeline over an area of 600 square miles. Benefits include reduced truck traffic and emissions, as well as reducing dust, noise, and road impact. Currently two permanent pump/filter stations are operating, with a third scheduled for later in 2016. In addition, the customer has several portable smaller skids to supplement operations.
Challenge
When the customer began operations in the Wattenberg field, they had a small operation using mechanical filters from an Amiad competitor. When expanding operations, they decided to take Amiad equipment that had been purchased for filtering coal bed methane reinjection water in the Powder River Basin. This equipment (no longer used in the PRB) was refurbished and reconfigured in Gillette, Wyoming and installed in the first Colorado pump/filter station. With experience operating Amiad at this station, the customer determined that Amiad would be the preferred filter supplier. The water source for the fracturing operations varies from lake water, storage reservoirs to irrigation ditches. This water has extreme variations in TSS levels throughout the year; and the Amiad system had to handle this while supplying Water On Demand.
Solution
Upon installation of the first refurbished skid in 2013, the six EBS filters were equipped with 100 um screens to replace the original 25 um screens. As the project scaled up, a second filter skid with another 6 EBS filters was installed in 2014. A third skid, also with 6 EBS filters, was ordered in 2015 and is currently awaiting installation. The second and third skids were custom designed for an operating pressure of 240 psi to ensure the water could be distributed throughout the entire pipeline network.
Results
Upon installation of the first refurbished skid in 2013, the six EBS filters were equipped with 100 um screens to replace the original 25 um screens. As the project scaled up, a second filter skid with another 6 EBS filters was installed in 2014. A third skid, also with 6 EBS filters, was ordered in 2015 and is currently awaiting installation. The second and third skids were custom designed for an operating pressure of 240 psi to ensure the water could be distributed throughout the entire pipeline network.
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