High-salinity produced water treatment and desalination

ABSTRACT Produced water contains salts and minerals of sufficiently high content (salinity > 35%) to be harmful to the ecosystem, making it difficult to dispose of, reinject for enhanced oil recovery, or use for other purposes such as human use and agriculture. This research summarises produced water treatment methods and their ranges of applicability and provides a comprehensive review of the most common desalination techniques used globally for high-salinity waters, explaining their mechanism, applications, advantages and limitations. We provide recommendations on the use of different methods for the desalination of hydrocarbon-associated produced water.