Civil Engineering ETDs
Publication Date
Summer 7-28-2026
Abstract
In this study, we investigate membrane distillation (MD) for desalination of produced water from the oil and gas industry. We tested commercial membranes with “clean brine” (saline solution representing produced waters), “oil emulsion” (oil/surfactant in 0.6 M NaCl), and “oil-in-brine emulsion” (oil/surfactant in clean brine) feed solutions. Compared to the oil emulsion, which did not cause flux decline, the clean brine caused flux to decline by 48-98% in 2.5 h. Compared to the clean brine, which caused little to no wetting, the oil emulsion caused wetting after 4-8h, with 75x higher distillate conductivity in 3.5-17 h. However, the oil-in-brine emulsion caused the most severe flux decline (by 36-133% in 1 h) and immediate wetting, with ~100x higher distillate conductivity in ~2 h, likely due to simultaneous organic/inorganic fouling and “salting-out” of surfactants. Whereas oil/surfactants and scaling alone cause wetting and fouling, their synergistic effects cause rapid process failure. To make MD viable for desalination of produced water and other challenging streams, pretreatment or membrane modification to mitigate scaling and wetting are critical.
Keywords
Produced water, desalination, membrane distillation, fouling, wetting, scaling
Sponsors
New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute
Document Type
Thesis
Language
English
Degree Name
Civil Engineering
Level of Degree
Masters
Department Name
Civil Engineering
First Committee Member (Chair)
Dr. Allyson McGaughey
Second Committee Member
Dr. José M. Cerrato
Third Committee Member
Dr. Anjali Mulchandani
Recommended Citation
Parajuli, Sagun. "FOULING, SCALING, AND WETTING OF MEMBRANES IN MEMBRANE DISTILLATION FOR PRODUCED WATER DESALINATION." (2026). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ce_etds/383