A slurry product is shown for treating water to both soften the water and to remove silica. The slurry is prepared by blending, in an aqueous medium, hydrated lime under the form of a slurry or of a powder with at least partly hydrated dolime, or magnesium hydroxide or magnesium oxide particles or a combination thereof under the form of a slurry or of a powder, to form an aqueous slurry where the amounts of the dolime, magnesium hydroxide or magnesium oxide particles or the combination thereof are provided such that the solid content of the slurry is up to 60% by weight of the slurry. The slurry also maintains a stable and pumpable viscosity for over a month.

The invention relates to a material comprising at least 97% by weight alkaline earth metal carbonates having a calcium oxide content of 0.3% by weight or less and a particle size group of 0.1 to 1.8 mm. The invention furthermore relates to a method for the preparation thereof and also the use thereof for deacidification, filtration and/or hardening of liquids.

The invention relates to a material comprising at least 97% by weight alkaline earth metal carbonates having a calcium oxide content of 0.3% by weight or less and a particle size group of 0.1 to 1.8 mm. The invention furthermore relates to a method for the preparation thereof and also the use thereof for deacidification, filtration and/or hardening of liquids.

A system and method for increasing total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration and pH of water is provided herein. The water is processed using a variety of filtration and purification methods, including carbon filtration, water softening, reverse osmosis, and electrodeionization. After filtration and purification, the water is pumped into a mineral infusion chamber, including a plurality of bioceramic components. At least one TDS sensor monitors the TDS concentration of the water stream, and a flow rate out of the mineral infusion chamber is controlled by a flow control valve based on sensor data produced by the at least one TDS sensor.

Conventional oil-water separation methods are inefficient since they break down a given primary phase into two secondary phases, one is richer and the other one is poorer in the secondary phase of the primary phase. As such, neither oil is recovered as a readily de-watered stream nor is water recovered as a readily de-oiled stream. However, de-watering and de-oiling of oil-water streams are synonymous, and therefore they should be simultaneously targeted by an efficient method. There are provided herein systems and methods to effectively treat oil-water streams by simultaneously de-watering the oil phase and de-oiling the water phase, de-scaling the de-oiled water phase, and de-salting the de-scaled water phase.

An apparatus for evaporative concentration of water, containing hardness-causing substances, to be treated using hot lime softening, includes: a first evaporator configured to form first concentrated water from the water to be treated by evaporatively concentrating the water by first heat exchange with hot steam; a hot lime softener configured to precipitate and to separate hardness-causing substances contained in the first concentrated water from at least a portion of the first concentrated water from the first evaporator by reaction with lime and configured to remove the hardness-causing substances from the first concentrated water; and a second evaporator configured to form second concentrated water by further evaporatively concentrating at least a portion of the first concentrated water that passed through the hot lime softener by second heat exchange with hot steam.

An apparatus for evaporative concentration of water, containing hardness-causing substances, to be treated using hot lime softening, includes: a first evaporator configured to form first concentrated water from the water to be treated by evaporatively concentrating the water by first heat exchange with hot steam; a hot lime softener configured to precipitate and to separate hardness-causing substances contained in the first concentrated water from at least a portion of the first concentrated water from the first evaporator by reaction with lime and configured to remove the hardness-causing substances from the first concentrated water; and a second evaporator configured to form second concentrated water by further evaporatively concentrating at least a portion of the first concentrated water that passed through the hot lime softener by second heat exchange with hot steam.

An oil or gas recovery process (10) is disclosed where resulting produced water includes silica. The process entails removing silica from the produced water via a two-stage process. In the first stage, magnesium oxide is injected into a Magnesium Dissolution Reactor (18) and mixed with the produced water to dissolve magnesium. Effluent from the Magnesium Dissolution Reactor (18) is directed downstream to a warm lime softener (22) where one or more alkaline chemicals are added to the produced water to raise the pH to approximately 10.0 to 11.5. Here, silica is co-precipitated with magnesium hydroxide and/or adsorbed onto magnesium hydroxide precipitates.

An oil or gas recovery process (10) is disclosed where resulting produced water includes silica. The process entails removing silica from the produced water via a two-stage process. In the first stage, magnesium oxide is injected into a Magnesium Dissolution Reactor (18) and mixed with the produced water to dissolve magnesium. Effluent from the Magnesium Dissolution Reactor (18) is directed downstream to a warm lime softener (22) where one or more alkaline chemicals are added to the produced water to raise the pH to approximately 10.0 to 11.5. Here, silica is co-precipitated with magnesium hydroxide and/or adsorbed onto magnesium hydroxide precipitates.

A method for treating wastewater is disclosed. The method is useful in particular for treating wastewater that is generated from the process of drilling, hydraulic fracturing and/or cleaning a bore of an oil or natural gas well bore. The method may include performing cold lime softening of the wastewater to form waste salt flocs, filtration of waste salt flocs, ozonation of the filtrate from the filtration, and reverse osmosis of the filtrate to produce a purified permeate.