Polymeric membranes for the treatment of oil and gas waste water – GASPOM

This project aims at creating a new generation of hollow fiber polymeric membrane, hydrophilic and temperature resistant, for the treatment of produced water in offshore platform. Growing environmental restrictions will push in a near future the oil companies to change conventional wastewater treatment plants for satisfying the future technical specifications (oil and particles removing). In this context, membrane technology meets advantages comparing to conventional techniques, such as (i) particles and oil droplets removal efficiency, (ii) the modularity of the systems and (iii) small footprint. Ceramic and polymeric membranes are efficient for oil and particles separation, but their main disadvantage concerns the fouling during filtration, calling for frequent cleaning cycles operated at high temperature. Ceramic membranes are nowadays preferred to polymeric ones because of their better tolerance to high temperature and strong cleaning agents. However, the ceramic membrane meets several disadvantages such as (i) high fouling due to hydrophobic compound (especially oil), (ii) high weight, (iii) moderate compactness since there are used under tubular configuration, (iv) fragility and (v) high capital and operating costs due to high speed velocity imposed in the tubes to prevent fouling. To date, no polymeric membrane exist that resist to high temperatures, thus preventing their use for the treatment of produced water. The main originality of GASPOM project lies in the preparation of hydrophilic polymeric membranes, able to withstand high temperature needed during the back-washing cycles. The membranes will be prepared from water soluble polymers, using innovative phase inversion methods including a temperature increase above the critical solution temperature ( LCST-TIP technique) or by pH modification to decrease the polymer solubility (pHIPS technique). The project aims at developping membrane hollow fibers to have a footprint as small as possible. GASPOM project will involve one academic partner, the European Institute of Membranes (IEM) at University Montpellier 2 (project coordinator), one EPIC partner, LIONS CEA (Saclay), and three industrial partners, KERMEL, polymer manufacturer, POLYMEM, polymeric hollow fiber membranes manufacturer and TOTAL, end user of the membrane on offshore platform.