Constructed Wetland for produced water treatment
Published on by Alexandros Stefanakis, Constructed Wetlands Specialist in Technology
The largest constructed wetland system in the world treating produced water from an oilfield under desert conditions exists in the SE Arabic peninsula.
Water contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons from oil wells is treated and purified using only naturally occurring removal processes with minimum external energy input and with gravity flow through a surface flow constructed wetland system.
The wetland size exceeds 360 hectares and also creates a wildlife habitat in the middle of the desert; more than 120 bird species have been observed in the wetland cells, especially during migration seasons.
A great development of ecological engineering advances and wetland technology.
Media
Taxonomy
- Treatment
- Produced Water Treatment
- Water Scarcity In Desert area
- Constructed Wetlands
1 Answer
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While at a brand new oil sands mining facility in northern Alberta, Canada, I was assigned as the Environmental Advisor monitoring the construction, planting, and testing of a demonstration-level treatment wetland. The intent was to treat runoff that had been in contact with overburden materials that potentially could contain bitumen. Unfortunately, staff was cut in December 2015 due to the decline in oil price, and I have learned little new since that time about the results of testing.
One potential drawback to the design of cascading pools was failure to account for the erosive potential of the flowing water, as the gradient was quite steep. Additional issues included the presence of an HDPE liner beneath the system that limited the depth of planted substrate rooting, and the presence of saturated muskeg in the immediate area of the test facility.