There is no need to find rare elements in space when they are abundant in wastewater

Humans are in an ironic situation, a treasure trove of rare elements is spilled out along with water considered too polluted and expensive to clean.

Dr. Hamidreza Samouei of Texas A&M University is studying the composition of produced water (produced water is a term used in the oil industry or geothermal industry to describe water produced as a by-product of oil and natural gas extraction, or used as a medium for heat extraction) . He said water released from oil and gas operations contains nearly every element on the periodic table, including elements important to a country's economy.

Samouei's goal is to treat produced water using carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) in stages to recover valuable elements and also produce fresh water for agricultural use.

Samouei said : 'Recognizing the hidden value in produced water can offer tangible solutions to some of the world's most pressing environmental challenges, from CO2 emissions _to increasing scarcity. increase of some minerals and clean water'.

Samouei's 'brine mining' research was featured in a January 2024 article in the Society of Petroleum Engineers' Journal of Petroleum Technology. The paper is titled 'Liquid gold mine: unlocking the vital mineral potential of produced water using carbon dioxide'. He introduced the topic at the Middle East Water Week Conference and Exhibition held in December 2023 in Saudi Arabia and reported his most recent findings at the Annual Produced Water Association Conference on February 2024 in Houston, Texas.

Gold, silver, and platinum are abundant in the producing country.

Why is the produced water thrown away?

Water accumulates in subsurface areas where geological activity takes place, like hydrocarbon reservoirs. It dissolves and stores large amounts of minerals and other elements. In oil and gas operations, on average, for every six barrels of produced water discharged, one barrel of oil is recovered, and in some scarcity cases, a staggering ratio of 500 barrels of produced water is recovered to one barrel. oil.

In 2020, annual water production from global oil and gas operations exceeded 240 billion barrels, with Texas alone generating 33 million barrels of produced water per day. Oil fields in the Permian Basin in Texas produce more produced water than all other US shale fields combined. Treating this large volume of produced water is expensive, so produced water is largely treated as waste and pumped into subsurface disposal sites for safe quarantine.

Hidden values ​​in salt water

Since everything produced in the country was never listed, Samouei's research started from the basics. He collected samples of manufactured water across the United States and created a standard method for analyzing water content. Thanks to this, he learned that it contained nearly every element listed on the periodic table.

Samouei's findings include important minerals such as lithium, rubidium, cesium, gallium and platinum group metals – fundamental to computer, energy and transport technology. More importantly, like other brine used in fertilizer production and other industries, produced water is abundant in sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium but is less expensive.

All of these minerals can be more profitable than crude oil . Therefore, the cost of water reclamation can easily be offset by selling the recovered minerals.

Find a better way to handle it

Samouei explains that although desalination of produced water has been considered, the method of extracting salts and minerals before treating the water has not been explored.

Much of his current research focuses on developing the best methods for extracting valuable minerals from brine during the refining stages using CO 2 _desalination . According to Samouei, this is 'a groundbreaking approach to intentionally recover desired minerals from produced water' . This process includes many different filtration techniques, such as ultrafiltration and nanofiltration, and even uses reverse osmosis.

Commercialization potential

The research is laying the groundwork for brine extraction, whether using produced water or other brackish water sources, but Samouei said further development will require funding. Many governments' funding sources are focused on mining precious minerals in far-off places like the seabed or even asteroids in space, not on something right in front of our eyes like manufacturing country.

Samouei hopes his research will change the oil and gas industry's view of producing water, first seeing it as a lucrative means of making money. Even in the following decades, production water can be considered as a source of input materials in oil and gas exploitation activities instead of waste products like today.

"Produced water can be ominous if we consider it as waste, but if we consider it as a resource, it will be beneficial for future generations on Earth," Samouei said .