Comparative Study of Various Treatment Processes of Crude Oil Associated Water Produced from the Upper Assam Basin (India)

A huge amount of crude oil associated water is produced from the Upper Assam oil field which contains contaminants and is harmful to the environment on direct disposal. From the analysis, we have observed the high presence of turbidity, salinity, Oil and Grease (O&G), Total Suspended Solid (TSS), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), organic and inorganic constituents. These water samples were not considered safe for disposal according to the rules and regulations provided by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India and have to be treated. Initially, they were treated in a sand filter which proves to be cost-effective but the turbidity, O&G, and potassium ion parameters were not within limits. On further treatment in Hollow Fiber Membrane Module setup (HFMS) with microfiltration (MF) and Ultra Filtration (UF) membranes, the previous parameters were brought within range. The decrease in absorbance showed the reduction of contaminants on treatment.