Produced Water Filtration – Spectrum™ Plus Filtration

Spectrum™ Plus Filtration results in significant improvement to downstream processes. Spectrum is a nutshell filter with a difference. It has the unique ability to remove oil and suspended solids to much lower levels then can be achieved by conventional nutshell filters.

Nutshell media filters are commonly used in the treatment of produced water to reduce the oil and solids content of the water prior to injection for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) or prior to subsequent treatment such as softening the water as feed to steam generators used in heavy oil production. However, residual oil and suspended solids which are present in nutshell filtrate result in downstream operational problems.

Solution: Improved filtration provided by Spectrum Plus Filter™ , which is able to achieve its high level of performance using two particulate media layers and a patented backwash process. An upper layer of coarse media allows for an extended service cycle by providing depth filtration of large particles while a lower layer of very dense micro media provides surface filtration of smaller articles.

While conventional nutshell filtrate contains significant particles in the 0-10 micron size range, Spectrum removes virtually all particles > 2 micron and significantly reduces < 2 micron particles. The nutshell media is effectively scoured using air or gas — no separate pumps or agitators are required. There are 15 standard models ranging from 1,500 – 60,000 BPD (50 – 2,000 gpm, 11 – 450 m3/hr).