Using Photo-Fenton and Floatation Techniques for the Sustainable Management of Flow-Back Produced Water Reuse in Shale Reservoirs Exploration

Shale reservoirs are one of the unconventional reservoirs that a large volume of hydrocarbon reserves have remained in these reservoirs. Thereby, proper measurement of reservoir characteristics will help to provide an economical and efficient required water as water scarcity has always been a significant challenge throughout recent decades. In this study, eight different production wells in the same formation were selected to consider the required freshwater and reused water for each well as a comparative analysis. According to the results of this study, the percentage of saved water from hydraulic fracturing flow-back water is approximately 85%. Therefore, it only needs 15% of freshwater to continue fracturing process each day, and photo-Fenton and floatation would be an excellent method to remove solids and chemicals from flow-back water. Furthermore, the percentage of saved water from water flooding processes and chemical enhanced oil recovery methods is approximately 70% and 75%, respectively. Therefore, it only needs 30% and 25% of freshwater to continue water flooding processes and chemical enhanced oil recovery methods each day. The approximate total volume of annual saved water is 104 MM m³ in which 1000 inhabitants could be still alive, and it will not be necessary to use the extreme volume of sweet water for hydrocarbon production.