Feasibility of Using Natural Zeolites to Remove Sodium from Coal Bed Methane-Produced Water
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 12
Abstract
Coal bed methane (CBM) is naturally occurring methane, contained in coal seams saturated with water. In order to extract the CBM, large quantities of water must be pumped from the coal seams. CBM water, produced in some areas of New Mexico, contains low total dissolved solids, which can potentially be used for rangeland irrigation. The water, however, has a high sodium adsorption ratio, which can result in severe deterioration of soil permeability with repeated irrigation. The St. Cloud zeolites exhibit a low selectivity of over (Vanselow selectivity coefficients of 0.26 and usable exchange capacity of ) at the ionic strength of -laden CBM waters . Nevertheless, given the availability and low cost of natural zeolites, ion exchange experiments were conducted using packed columns to estimate a treatment cost. The operation and maintenance cost of the zeolite system was estimated to be about $3 per barrel (one barrel liters) compared with for deep well injection (primary management practice) and for soil amendment. Based on these preliminary experiments, it is evident that the ion exchange process for removal, with natural zeolites as the media, is not economical due to the low sodium selectivity.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers would like to express their thanks to the St. Cloud mine, N.M. for providing the zeolite and to the Waste Education Research Consortium for partial financial support.
References
ALL. (2004). “Coal bed methane primer: New source of natural gas—Environmental implications.” Rep. Prepared by ALL Consulting and Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation for U.S. Department of Energy, National Petroleum Technology Office, Tulsa, Okla.
Austin, G. S., and Bowman, R. S. (2002). “St. Cloud Mining Company’s stone house zeolite mine and new uses for clinoptilolite.” Proc., Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME) National Meeting, SME, Littleton, Colo.
Burge, S., and Halden, R. (1999). “Nitrate and perchlorate removal from groundwater by ion exchange—Pilot testing and cost analysis.” Rep. Prepared by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif. for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.
Cooney, E. L., Booker, N. A., Shallcross, D. C., and Stevens, G. W. (1999). “Ammonia removal from wastewaters using natural Australian zeolite. II. Pilot-scale study using continuous packed column process.” Sep. Sci. Technol., 34(14), 2741–2760.
Doula, M., Ioannou, A., and Dimirkou, A. (2002). “Copper adsorption and Si, Al, Ca, Mg, and Na release from clinoptilolite.” J. Colloid Interface Sci., 245(2), 237–250.
Essington, M. E. (2003). Soil and water chemistry: An integrative approach, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Fla.
Frenkel, H., Goertzen, J. O., and Rhoades, J. D. (1978). “Effects of clay type and content, exchangeable sodium percentage, and electrolyte concentration on clay dispersion and soil hydraulic conductivity.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 42(1), 32–39.
Helfferich, F. (1962). Ion exchange, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Israelachvili, J. N. (1992). Intermolecular and Surface Forces, Academic, San Diego.
Kopittke, P. M., So, H. B., and Menzies, N. W. (2005). “Effect of ionic strength and clay minerology on exchange and the SAR-ESP relationship.” Eur. J. Soil. Sci., in press.
Lahav, O., and Green, M. (2000). “Bioregenerated ion-exchange process: The effect of the biofilm on the ion-exchange capacity and kinetics.” Water SA, 26(1), 51–57.
Liu, C., and Lo, K. V. (2001). “Ammonia removal from compost leachate using zeolite. III. Regeneration of zeolite columns.” J. Environ. Sci. Health, Part A: Toxic/Hazard. Subst. Environ. Eng., 36(10), 1825–1843.
Loizidou, M., Haralambous, K. J., Loukatos, A., and Dimitrakopoulou, D. (1992). “Natural zeolites and their ion exchange behavior toward chromium.” J. Environ. Sci. Health, Part A: Toxic/Hazard. Subst. Environ. Eng., 27(7), 1759–l769.
Moreno, V. P., Arellano, J. J. C., and Ramírez, H. B. (2004). “Characterization and preparation of porous membranes with a natural Mexican zeolite.” J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 16(22), S2345–S2352.
Natrajan, P. (2005). “Feasibility of using natural zeolites to remove sodium from CBM produced water.” MS thesis, Dept. of Environmental Engineering, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, N.M.
New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD). (2003). Chapter 3: “Extractive energy resources.” New Mexico’s natural resources—Data and Statistics for 2002. New Mexico EMNRD, Mining and Minerals Division, Santa Fe, N.M., pp. 3–17.
Pabalan, R. T. (1994). “Thermodynamics of ion exchange between clinoptilolite and aqueous solutions of and .” Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 58(21), 4573–4590.
Paetz, J., and Maloney, S. (2002). “Demonstrated economics of managed irrigation for CBM-produced water.” Proc., CBM Water Management Conference, Strategic Research Institute, New York.
Prikryl, J. D., Jain, A., Turner, D. R., and Pabalan, R. T. (2001). “ sorption behavior on silicate mineral mixtures.” J. Contam. Hydrol., 47, 241–253.
Ramakrishna, T. V., Robinson, J. W., and West, P. W. (1966). “The determination of calcium and magnesium by atomic absorption spectroscopy.” Anal. Chim. Acta, 36, 57–64.
Repa, E. W. (2002). “NSWMA’s 2002 tipping fee survey.” National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA), Research Bulletin No. 2002–2003. Washington, D.C., p. 4.
Russell, C. (1994). “Desalination of bicarbonate brine waters: Experimental findings leading to an ion exchange process design.” MS thesis, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, N.M.
Sharma, S., and Agarwal, G. P. (2001). “Interactions of proteins with immobilized metal ions: Role of ionic strength and pH.” J. Colloid Interface Sci., 243(1), 61–72.
Sparks, D. L. (2003). Environmental soil chemistry, Academic, San Diego.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). (2000). “Water produced with coal-bed methane.” USGS Fact Sheet, FS-156-00.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). (2003). “Coal-bed gas resources of the Rocky Mountain region.” USGS Fact Sheet, FS-158-02.
Van de Graaff, R., and Patterson, R. A. (2001). “Explaining the mysteries of salinity, sodicity, SAR, and ESP in on-site practice.” Proc., On-site ’01 Conf.: Advancing on-site wastewater systems, R. A. Patterson and M. J. Jones, eds., Lanfax Laboratories Armidale, Australia.
Warrence, N. J., Bauder, J. W., and Pearson, K. E. (2002). “Basics of salinity and sodicity effects on soil physical properties.” ⟨http://waterquality.montana.edu/docs/methane/basics.shtml⟩ .
Woods, R., and Gunter, M. E. (2001). “Na and Cs exchange in a clinoptilolite-rich rock: Analysis of outgoing cations in solution.” Am. Mineral., 86, 424–430.
Wüst, T., Stolz, J., and Armbruster, T. (1999). “Partially dealuminated heulandite produced by acidic solution: A chemical and single-crystal x-ray study.” Am. Mineral., 84, 1126–ll34.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 132 • Issue 12 • December 2006
Pages: 1644 - 1650
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Mar 9, 2005
Accepted: May 10, 2006
Published online: Dec 1, 2006
Published in print: Dec 2006
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.