Removing the CSG water headache

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A SOLUTION for cost-effective removal of salts from coal seam gas water is on its way with Penrice Soda Holdings expected to announce a deal with a CSG producer to construct a pilot plant in Queensland by Christmas.

Penrice Soda, Australia’s only soda ash producer, has developed technology to remove salts from the CSG water stream.

Managing director Guy Roberts told PNN the company had always been aware of carbonate salts residing in underground aquifers in Queensland, but it wasn’t until the CSG industry kicked off that it became economic to remove the salts from the water and process it into a saleable form.

“We knew that carbonate salts were in the water and about two or three years ago, we become involved in discussions with one of the coal seam gas producers who approached us, and that was the catalyst for this new round of studies and for our involvement in the industry,” he said.

“The technology that we’ve developed really derives from the technology that we employ in our own manufacturing business. We’ve taken this technology and we’ve applied it to the unique water that sits up there in Queensland and we’ve worked out a method to extract the sodium salts out of it.”

The technology could solve a major environmental concern for CSG producers. In recent months, concerns have been rife about the effects of CSG drilling on groundwater supplies in Queensland.

Last month, the concerns were further fuelled by the recent discovery of traces of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes) in exploration wells fracced by the Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas joint venture.

Subsequent chemical analysis of the samples confirmed the fracture stimulation operations have not affected landholder water bores and none of the samples showed unsafe levels of the chemicals.

“Our advantage for the coal seam gas producers is that we take the problem away so they don’t have to worry about it,” Roberts said.

“We turn their waste headache into something saleable and sell it.”

Roberts said the technology works by the produced CSG waste water running through a reverse osmosis (RO) plant to create a pure water stream and a reject water stream.

The pure water stream would be applied to the environment or for human consumption as required, while the reject stream would be processed through a chemical plant to create saleable salts, including salt, soda ash and sodium bicarbonate.

“The water that comes through the RO plant will be drinking water standard and will be put back into the environment or community, depending on what approvals the producer has obtained,” Roberts said.

“The water that we take from the reject stream out of the RO plant gets crystallised in small drying ponds and then goes through a 12-stage chemical process where we’ll make probably a combination of three products.

“There’s no waste stream out of this Penrice process. Everything gets consumed to make saleable products.”

Penrice is in discussions with a CSG producer to construct a pilot plant, the first step in commercialising the technology.

The pilot plant will allow the company to show that it can make saleable products before it designs a commercial-scale plant.

“At the moment we have this unique technology which we have been developing ... it is yet to be scaled up into a commercial-scale operation and so we’ve really got to demonstrate the technology first,” Roberts said.

“We expect to be announcing construction of the first pilot plant by Christmas.

“The plant might be the size of a small house sitting in the middle of the field which we’ll run for about six months to demonstrate that we can make the product that we think we can, and that will give us a lot of confidence to move forward.

“Ultimately, whether we have one large plant or several smaller ones is yet to be determined ... but we’re not talking about a landscape littered with these things at all.”


Wednesday, 3 November 2010
PetroleumNews.net
http://www.petroleumnews.net/StoryView.asp?StoryID=1542117

A SOLUTION for cost-effective removal of salts from coal seam gas water is on its way with Penrice Soda Holdings expected to announce a deal with a CSG producer to construct a pilot plant in Queensland by Christmas.

Penrice Soda, Australia’s only soda ash producer, has developed technology to remove salts from the CSG water stream.

Managing director Guy Roberts told PNN the company had always been aware of carbonate salts residing in underground aquifers in Queensland, but it wasn’t until the CSG industry kicked off that it became economic to remove the salts from the water and process it into a saleable form.

“We knew that carbonate salts were in the water and about two or three years ago, we become involved in discussions with one of the coal seam gas producers who approached us, and that was the catalyst for this new round of studies and for our involvement in the industry,” he said.

“The technology that we’ve developed really derives from the technology that we employ in our own manufacturing business. We’ve taken this technology and we’ve applied it to the unique water that sits up there in Queensland and we’ve worked out a method to extract the sodium salts out of it.”

The technology could solve a major environmental concern for CSG producers. In recent months, concerns have been rife about the effects of CSG drilling on groundwater supplies in Queensland.

Last month, the concerns were further fuelled by the recent discovery of traces of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes) in exploration wells fracced by the Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas joint venture.

Subsequent chemical analysis of the samples confirmed the fracture stimulation operations have not affected landholder water bores and none of the samples showed unsafe levels of the chemicals.

“Our advantage for the coal seam gas producers is that we take the problem away so they don’t have to worry about it,” Roberts said.

“We turn their waste headache into something saleable and sell it.”

Roberts said the technology works by the produced CSG waste water running through a reverse osmosis (RO) plant to create a pure water stream and a reject water stream.

The pure water stream would be applied to the environment or for human consumption as required, while the reject stream would be processed through a chemical plant to create saleable salts, including salt, soda ash and sodium bicarbonate.

“The water that comes through the RO plant will be drinking water standard and will be put back into the environment or community, depending on what approvals the producer has obtained,” Roberts said.

“The water that we take from the reject stream out of the RO plant gets crystallised in small drying ponds and then goes through a 12-stage chemical process where we’ll make probably a combination of three products.

“There’s no waste stream out of this Penrice process. Everything gets consumed to make saleable products.”

Penrice is in discussions with a CSG producer to construct a pilot plant, the first step in commercialising the technology.

The pilot plant will allow the company to show that it can make saleable products before it designs a commercial-scale plant.

“At the moment we have this unique technology which we have been developing ... it is yet to be scaled up into a commercial-scale operation and so we’ve really got to demonstrate the technology first,” Roberts said.

“We expect to be announcing construction of the first pilot plant by Christmas.

“The plant might be the size of a small house sitting in the middle of the field which we’ll run for about six months to demonstrate that we can make the product that we think we can, and that will give us a lot of confidence to move forward.

“Ultimately, whether we have one large plant or several smaller ones is yet to be determined ... but we’re not talking about a landscape littered with these things at all.”


Wednesday, 3 November 2010
PetroleumNews.net
http://www.petroleumnews.net/StoryView.asp?StoryID=1542117