GE’s wastewater evaporation technologies have been selected to improve wastewater recovery at an existing oil sands project near Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada. The facility utilizes once-through steam generators (OTSGs) to produce steam, which drives the steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process for the production of bitumen, which is a heavy crude oil produced from oil sands.
GE’s system will recycle a portion of the OTSG blowdown, thereby decreasing the volume of liquid waste from the facility and increasing the volume of boiler-feed water available for generation of steam and production of bitumen. The use of GE’s evaporation technologies for the recovery of OTSG blowdown is gaining traction in the Alberta oil sands, where producers are seeking sustainable production processes that satisfy increasingly stringent environmental regulations. This project is the fifth to utilize GE’s evaporation technologies for OTSG blowdown treatment. To date,14 SAGD projects have selected GE evaporation technologies, including six over the past 19 months, for their produced water and OTSG blowdown treatment applications.
“We are aligning our businesses to best meet the needs of Canada’s oil sands industry by offering more energy and water efficient products and services,“ said Jeff Connelly, vice president, engineered systems—water and process technologies for GE Power & Water.”
Source: GE
