OiW – Oil in Water

Challenge

During the production of oil and gas, large amounts of water are also produced. One of the biggest environmental problems in offshore oil and gas production is the safe disposal of this produced water. In most fields, the water is treated and then discharged to the sea. It is estimated that more than 300 Mm3 is discharged annually into the North Sea. Discharged water must comply with strict environmental regulations. The current measurement methods do not take the complexity of the water composition into account and thus lead to great inaccuracy in the measurement.

Solution

The OiW project develops an innovative technology for measuring oil-in-water (both droplets and dissolved) using advanced 3D fluorescence spectroscopy (a method using light to capture data) combined with advanced data processing.

The measurement technology is then integrated into a control solution for use in a hydrocyclone-based process to extract the excess oil from the produced water.

The goal is an advanced online sensor combined with a control algorithm for optimizing water treatment technologies. We use the water’s fluorescence topography and use a combination of optical methods and advanced data analysis to reduce the water’s environmental impact.

Effect

Potentially, the project can contribute to a 10-20 times improvement in the accuracy of the measurement of the water quality produced in connection with oil and gas production.