Recycle and reuse of process water through sulfate removal

The primary objective of the project is to engineer novel and innovative liquid extractants to treat industrial process water taking advantage of the flexible design capabilities available in ionic liquid materials to design and develop best-in-class extractants for liquid-liquid partitioning and purification of water. Two targets will be investigated within project:
- Sulfate removal from sea water, allowing its use directly as a drilling and injection fluid for off-shore oil/gas recovery
- Broad decontamination of process- and sea-water to remove and recover valuable products and/or provide purified water for discharge or reuse.
The elimination of waste and the recycling of resources in the environment are key pillars to a sustainable future, and this project addresses applications to enable sustainable resource management in the oil-and gas industry, and may also be extendable to processing of phosphate and nitrate pollutants from agrifood and anerobic digestion plant waste allowing clean water use or discharge.