1. Chevron Project: Water Treatment
Customer Needs
Mission Statement
Task
Treat water on-site
Produce marketable by-product
Sustainable
Safety
Environmentally friendly
Cost
Time
Transportation of materials
Our task given was to find a sustainable way to treat the water from on-site wells and turn the products into profit. We want to lessen the damage to the water table that occurs during the process of fracking. We will use various methods of chemical and/or physical water filtration systems to separate the brine into its individual components and create a profitable by-product which will reduce the damage. While there may be some particles/chemicals that we may not be able to remove, those leftover products will be disposed of according to government regulations. .
Solutions And Initial Ideas
Prototype Description
SolidWorks Model
Ceramic Filtration
Mechanically strong, chemically and thermally stable, and can achieve high flux rates. They are capable of removing particulates, organic matter, oil and grease, and metal oxides. Their main disadvantage is high capital cost. Excels at blocking microorganisms and harmful metals.
Membrane Filtration
Provides a barrier with a specified pore size. Flow rates are affected by the filter membrane (barrier).
Our prototype is designed to maximize the quality of the water filtration process and to be structurally strong and cost-effective. The most effective process to do this is Silicon Carbide filtration. SiC filtration is a type of ceramic filtration which uses silicon carbide, alumina, colloidal silica, and montmorillonite to create a foam which filters used fracking water. One of its key features is high thermal resistance, making it effective at filtering ferrous materials in the water. It also has a high flux rate, making it ideal for maximizing economic profits.
Our application of Silicon Carbide filtration involves pumping water through an intermediate filter to be stored inside of storage tanks until the main filter has completed filtering the water. The filtered water is then pumped into new storage tanks to be recycled. The SiC filter itself contains SiC solid webbing held together by some sort of mesh or gridding.
Prototype Testing and Analysis
Our team tested how our prototype to determine how much silicon carbide would be needed to make the filtration system efficient. We determined with the prototype 75% packed, it took approximately 11 seconds and at 100% capacity 12 seconds. We determined that the quantity of silicon carbide is inversely proportional to the water’s flux rate. We also found that the prototype will not cost much money because all the materials are available in the environment. The cost is around $7 for the processing on one barrel of brine.
Team 7 Members
Acknowledgements
Connor O’Keefe
Mohammed Bin Ahmed
Kira Kuzmenchuk
Qasem Abufaza
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park
Fall 2016
Engineering Design 100
Dr. Esther Obonyo