Challenges and trends in membrane technology implementation for produced water treatment: A review

• Implementations of membrane technology for produced water treatment were reviewed.
• The capabilities and performance optimization of these implementations were discussed.
• Determination of potential challenges with corresponding solutions during treatment.
• The trends for membrane technology implementation in the petroleum industry outlined.
• The outlook for novel membrane applications for produced water treatment identified.

This review provides insight into the implementation of membrane technology in the petroleum industry for treating produced water that is generated from conventional oilfields in upstream and downstream processes. The ever-evolving and increasingly stringent regulatory standards for discharging produced water pose colossal environmental and economic implications because the bulk of this produced water is disposed into the environment. Thus, a review of the implementation of membrane technology for produced water treatment could contribute to the knowledge required for the increased introduction of scaled-up membrane technology in the petroleum industry. This review encompasses the capabilities and performance optimization possibilities of microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis membranes. The level of applications that these membrane technologies might attain within the petroleum industry were determined, and these implementations were correlated with the purpose, performance efficiency, treatment system configurations, necessary pretreatment procedures, quality of treated produced water, fouling occurrence and control, foulants, cleaning procedures, raw produced water content, potential challenges with corresponding applied solutions, and economic factors. This review also maps current and future trends and provides a perspective on the outlook for advances in novel membrane applications for produced water treatment.