Disclosed is an improved water treatment cavitation reactor cone. The tank operates on a continuous flow of fluids which are subjected to ultrasonic waves in combination with a high level of injected ozone. The treatment tank includes a tangential inlet that induces a rotating flow into the tank thereby increasing the mixing of the ozone within the effluent. The effluent is further treated with DC current. The treatment tank provides a cost efficient and environmentally friendly process and apparatus for cleaning and recycling fluids as contaminated as frac water, used to stimulate gas production from shale formations, as well as other types of fluids having various levels of contaminants such as aerobic and anaerobic bacteria and suspended solids. The calcium carbonate scaling tendency is reduced to an acceptable level without the use of acids, ion exchange materials, or anti scaling chemicals which is of economical and environmental significance and benefit.
1. A process for lowering scaling tendencies in flowback water from a gas production well site including the steps of:
fluidly connecting a source of flowback water to a backwash filter;
injecting ozone into said filtered flowback water;
directing said ozonated filtered flowback water into an ozone treatment tank;
fluidly connecting an outlet of said ozone treatment tank to a first inlet of an inline static mixer;
conveying said ozonated flowback water from an outlet of said static mixer tank to a tangential inlet of a main cavitation reactor cone, said main cavitation reactor cone including a plurality of ultrasonic transducers and a plurality of electrodes;
subjecting said flowback water to hydrodynamic cavitation within said main cavitation reactor cone;
controlling said ultrasonic transducers to create dual frequency acoustic cavitations within said main cavitation reactor cone; and
adjusting said electrodes being electrically connected to a positive charge of a DC power supply and said cavitation reactor cone being electrically connected to a negative charge of a DC power supply to cause precipitation of hardness salts on an internal surface of said main cavitation reactor cone, wherein said acoustic cavitations continuously clean the internal tank surface of precipitated hardness salts and said hydrodynamic and acoustic cavitations form the precipitated hardness salts into a colloidal suspension that can be recycled for use in the gas production wells in a continuous process.
2. A process for lowering scaling tendencies in flowback water as set forth in claim 1 including the step of filtering said flowback water to remove particles greater than 25 microns in size.
3. A process for lowering scaling tendencies in flowback water as set forth in claim 1 including the step of conveying a source of aluminum sulfate to a second inlet of said inline static mixer.
4. A process for lowering scaling tendencies in flowback water as set forth in claim 1 wherein said main cavitation reactor cone induces rotational flow of said flowback water.
5. A process for lowering scaling tendencies in flowback water as set forth in claim 1 including the step of creating a pressure greater than atmospheric pressure within said main cavitation reactor cone.
6. A process for lowering scaling tendencies in flowback water as set forth in claim 1 including the step of exposing the flowback water with said main treatment tank to at least one pair of ultrasonic transducers operating at approximately at 16 KHz and at least one pair of ultrasonic transducers operating at approximately 20 KHz.
7. A process for lowering scaling tendencies in flowback water as set forth in claim 6 including the step of passing the flowback water through a plurality of media tanks containing activated carbon.
8. A process for lowering scaling tendencies in flowback water as set forth in claim 7 including the step of passing the flowback water through reverse osmosis pumps and membranes to thereby produce a first output of clean flowback water and a second output of reject water for disposal.
9. A process for lowering scaling tendencies in flowback water as set forth in claim 1 wherein the equipment for performing the process is assembled as a plurality of removable modules that are mounted on skids that are placed within a standard truck trailer, said trailer moveable from one well site to another by truck, rail or ship.
10. A process for lowering scaling tendencies in flowback water as set forth in claim 1 including the step of conveying the flowback water from an outlet of said main cavitation reactor cone to at least one centrifuge that will separate the solids out of the flowback water.