Technical Article: Produced Water Recovery At Seneca Resources Using Short Bed Ion Exchange

By Lewis Krause, Michael Sheedy, Eco-Tec Inc.
and Keith Jones, Seneca Resources

As a result of water restrictions in the Bakersfield, CA area, Seneca Resources has installed a new produced water recovery system. This paper reviews this process, which consists of water knock out and clarification tanks, an IGF unit, a specialized nutshell filter, and a short bed ion exchange softener that is regenerated with salt. The water being treated has a TDS level of 4,000 - 7,000 mg/L. The specified target hardness level in the treated stream is <1ppm. In actual service the ion exchange softener is consistently producing water with a hardness level <0.5ppm. Some novel aspects covered in the paper include the following: the use of an air scoured dual-media nutshell filter, the application of short bed ion exchange technology to the treatment of produced water, and an in-situ resin cleaning process.