Polymem UF Seawater Ultrafiltration System | SLB

Polymem UF

Seawater Ultrafiltration System

polymem-uf-ultrafiltration-system

More efficient filtration of solids down to 0.01 um

Solids suspended in seawater must be removed before use in many oil and gas applications, particularly if seawater is going to be injected into the reservoir. Minerals contained in seawater can react with reservoir chemistry, which can cause production problems. In addition to reservoir requirements, process equipment used in a seawater treatment system can also dictate the necessary level of suspended solids removal.

Polymem UF seawater ultrafiltration systems remove suspended particles as small as 0.01 um from seawater and can replace media filters and cartridge filters. They provide significant weight savings compared with media filtration and lower total life-cycle cost compared with stand-alone cartridge filtration, independent of varying feedwater quality.

The space-saving Polymem UF design is more compact than other ultrafiltration or microfiltration designs for an equivalent filtration surface. Filtration down to the 0.01-um level includes the removal of all suspended organic components. This is an extremely clean product water passed to downstream systems, which can improve run time and reduce operator intervention.

Polymem UF Seawater Ultrafiltration System
System with UF (top) and RO (bottom)
Polymem UF Seawater Ultrafiltration System
Process flow schematic
Polymem UF Seawater Ultrafiltration System

Consistent seawater filtration performance

Polymem UF systems operate by capturing all particles greater than a certain size on the surface of a membrane. Once a layer of particles has formed on the membrane, causing a pressure drop between the feed water and the filtrate flow, the system is backwashed with filtrate and air. The system can manage varying feed qualities while still delivering consistent output quality with a silt density index (SDI) less than two.