Economic Analysis of an Innovative Scheme for the Treatment of Produced Waters

During the crude oil extraction processes, for each barrel of oil turns out an equivalent of 3 barrels of wastewaters on average. These wastes are known as Produced Waters (PWs) and their dramatic impact on the environment has attracted the attention of researchers in order to find an economic and efficient method for their treatment. Dealing with PWs is not easy: the long exposure with oil increases their hydrocarbon fraction, while the contact with the underground wells increases their concentration in salts and minerals. The direct discharge of PWs into the sea is obviously not allowed by law and PWs are usually re-injected into the well. The present work deals with a novel and innovative treatment chain (including assisted reverse electrodialysis (ARED) as dilution step) able to reduce both the salinity and organic content of PWs. The innovative scheme includes an ultrafiltration unit as pre-treatment, upstream an ARED unit for the PW dilution. Once the salinity level has been reduced down to a value affordable for a bioremediation step, PWs are sent to a bio-reactor, where the organic compounds are digested. Finally, a reverse osmosis unit is used to recover water from the treated PWs and to recycle it as diluted stream in the ARED unit. A techno-economic model was purposely developed in the present work to assess the economic feasibility of the proposed scheme. Preliminary results suggest that the treatment costs are lower than 5 € m-3 PW and fully competitive with current PWs treatment technologies

Salinity Reduction of Real Produced Waters via Assisted Reverse Electrodialysis

Produced waters (PWs) are waste streams generated during the crude oil extraction processes. The management of these wastewaters is complicated by the large volumes extracted during the oil recovery operations: these depends on the life of the oil-well: typically, 3 barrels of PWs on average are produced for each barrel of oil extracted. After oil separation, PWs are usually re-injected into the well, but this approach is not always possible without a preliminary and suitable treatment. Bioremediation techniques might be a good option, but they fail due to the PWs high salinity, which inhibit bacteria growth and metabolism. Thus, reducing their salinity upstream a bioremediation unit is a matter of crucial importance. To this aim, Assisted Reverse electrodialysis (ARED) along with the use of a dilute stream typically available on site is here proposed as a novel solution. In ARED an additional voltage is applied in the same direction of the salinity gradient through the membranes in order to enhance the passage of ions from the PW to the diluted solution, thus significantly reducing the required membrane area. An experimental campaign was carried out in order to assess the process feasibility. A fixed volume of real PWs was fed to a laboratory scale ARED unit. Each experimental test lasted for three days to reduce the salinity down to about 20 g l-1, a value compatible with the biomass metabolism for a downstream bioremediation step. Two different types of commercial membranes were tested and relevant energy consumptions were calculated. The long-runs performed did not show a significant loss of efficiency due to fouling, thus suggesting that ARED might a suitable technology for a pre-dilution of produced water

Cost-effectiveness of tenofovir in the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B: data from literature

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is a complex disease with significant social impact both on the patients' quality of life of and the economic resources involved. Its chronicity affects considerably not only the clinical management of the disease (for the need for drugs with proven long-term safety and low rate of resistance), but also the economic impact (for the high costs of treatment, the management of complications, and the constant monitoring of therapy).Since, as is well known, the main problem of modern health care systems is the general scarcity of available resources in the face of growing demand for health, the issue of economic evaluation of therapies for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B has been addressed in numerous national and international studies. In fact, clinicians find a strong support for the choice of the most suitable therapeutic pathway in the major scientific societies' guidelines (European Association for the Study of The Liver – EASL, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – AASLD, Associazione Italiana per lo Studio del Fegato – AISF), while the analysis of the economic implications is rather more difficult, even for the methodological differences and peculiarities of the different countries.The aim of this paper is to present a brief summary of some of the recently conducted cost-effectiveness analyses and extrapolate some data to support the economic evidence related to the treatment of CHB with nucleos(t)ide analogs. In particular, the article focuses on the comparison between entecavir (ETV) and tenofovir (TDF), the two oral antiviral therapies recommended for first-line treatment. In the selected studies, the comparison between the different treatment options was conducted in order to assess the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) and the results were expressed in terms of QALYs (Quality Adjusted Life Years) gained.Despite the methodological differences among the selected studies, tenofovir is found to be, in the context of first-line oral antiviral therapies, the most cost-effective treatment for patients with chronic hepatitis B

Economic Benefits of Waste Pickling Solution Valorization

An integrated hybrid membrane process, composed of a diffusion dialysis (DD), a membrane distillation (MD) and a reactive precipitation unit (CSTR), is proposed as a promising solution for the valorization and onsite recycling of pickling waste streams. An economic analysis was performed aiming to demonstrate the feasibility of the developed process with a NPV of about EUR 40,000 and a DPBP of 4 years. The investment and operating costs, as well as the avoided costs and the benefits for the company operating the plant, were analyzed with an extensive cost tracking exercise and through face-to-face contact with manufacturers and sector leaders. A mathematical model was implemented using the gPROMS modelling platform. It is able to simulate steady state operations and run optimization analysis of the process performance. The impact of key operating and design parameters, such as the set-point bath concentration and the DD and MD membrane areas, respectively, was investigated and the optimal arrangement was identified. Finally, operating variables and design parameters were optimized simultaneously in a nonlinear framework as a tradeoff between profitability and environmental impact. We show how the integration of new technologies into the traditional pickling industry could provide a significant benefit for the issues of process sustainability, which are currently pressing

Resource recovery from desalination, the case of small islands

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MThis work explores resource recovery coupled to seawater desalination in small islands. As small islands depend on seawater desalination for water access, they make an excellent ground for exploring the trade-offs associated to resource recovery, like potential economic gains, energy use, and environmental impacts. Here, we investigated these tensions in the context of Lampedusa, in Italy. We then developed and evaluated scenarios for the recovery of additional water, Mg, and other resources from brines, to identify if and how resource recovery is an interesting approach for the island vis-à-vis these tensions. We have found that the potential to increase water production with water recovery from brine is an interesting alternative for small islands, especially when harnessing waste heat. However, while some technologies offer possibilities for recovering additional resources, in places like small islands the potential benefits from additional recovery do not seem to justify the costs to the local system

Economic Analysis of an Innovative Scheme for the Treatment of Produced Waters

During the crude oil extraction processes, for each barrel of oil turns out an equivalent of 3 barrels of wastewaters on average. These wastes are known as Produced Waters (PWs) and their dramatic impact on the environment has attracted the attention of researchers in order to find an economic and efficient method for their treatment. Dealing with PWs is not easy: the long exposure with oil increases their hydrocarbon fraction, while the contact with the underground wells increases their concentration in salts and minerals. The direct discharge of PWs into the sea is obviously not allowed by law and PWs are usually re-injected into the well. The present work deals with a novel and innovative treatment chain (including assisted reverse electrodialysis (ARED) as dilution step) able to reduce both the salinity and organic content of PWs. The innovative scheme includes an ultrafiltration unit as pre-treatment, upstream an ARED unit for the PW dilution. Once the salinity level has been reduced down to a value affordable for a bioremediation step, PWs are sent to a bio-reactor, where the organic compounds are digested. Finally, a reverse osmosis unit is used to recover water from the treated PWs and to recycle it as diluted stream in the ARED unit. A techno-economic model was purposely developed in the present work to assess the economic feasibility of the proposed scheme. Preliminary results suggest that the treatment costs are lower than 5 € m-3PW and fully competitive with current PWs treatment technologies

Salinity Reduction of Real Produced Waters via Assisted Reverse Electrodialysis

Produced waters (PWs) are waste streams generated during the crude oil extraction processes. The management of these wastewaters is complicated by the large volumes extracted during the oil recovery operations: these depends on the life of the oil-well: typically, 3 barrels of PWs on average are produced for each barrel of oil extracted. After oil separation, PWs are usually re-injected into the well, but this approach is not always possible without a preliminary and suitable treatment. Bioremediation techniques might be a good option, but they fail due to the PWs high salinity, which inhibit bacteria growth and metabolism. Thus, reducing their salinity upstream a bioremediation unit is a matter of crucial importance. To this aim, Assisted Reverse electrodialysis (ARED) along with the use of a dilute stream typically available on site is here proposed as a novel solution. In ARED an additional voltage is applied in the same direction of the salinity gradient through the membranes in order to enhance the passage of ions from the PW to the diluted solution, thus significantly reducing the required membrane area. An experimental campaign was carried out in order to assess the process feasibility. A fixed volume of real PWs was fed to a laboratory scale ARED unit. Each experimental test lasted for three days to reduce the salinity down to about 20 g l-1, a value compatible with the biomass metabolism for a downstream bioremediation step. Two different types of commercial membranes were tested and relevant energy consumptions were calculated. The long-runs performed did not show a significant loss of efficiency due to fouling, thus suggesting that ARED might a suitable technology for a pre-dilution of produced waters

Cost-effectiveness of tenofovir in the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B: data from literature

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is a complex disease with significant social impact both on the patients’ quality of life of and the economic resources involved. Its chronicity affects considerably not only the clinical management of the disease (for the need for drugs with proven long-term safety and low rate of resistance), but also the economic impact (for the high costs of treatment, the management of complications, and the constant monitoring of therapy).Since, as is well known, the main problem of modern health care systems is the general scarcity of available resources in the face of growing demand for health, the issue of economic evaluation of therapies for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B has been addressed in numerous national and international studies. In fact, clinicians find a strong support for the choice of the most suitable therapeutic pathway in the major scientific societies’ guidelines (European Association for the Study of The Liver – EASL, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – AASLD, Associazione Italiana per lo Studio del Fegato – AISF), while the analysis of the economic implications is rather more difficult, even for the methodological differences and peculiarities of the different countries.The aim of this paper is to present a brief summary of some of the recently conducted cost-effectiveness analyses and extrapolate some data to support the economic evidence related to the treatment of CHB with nucleos(t)ide analogs. In particular, the article focuses on the comparison between entecavir (ETV) and tenofovir (TDF), the two oral antiviral therapies recommended for first-line treatment. In the selected studies, the comparison between the different treatment options was conducted in order to assess the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) and the results were expressed in terms of QALYs (Quality Adjusted Life Years) gained.Despite the methodological differences among the selected studies, tenofovir is found to be, in the context of first-line oral antiviral therapies, the most cost-effective treatment for patients with chronic hepatitis B

The design and validation of the R1 personal humanoid

In recent years the robotics field has witnessed an interesting new trend. Several companies started the production of service robots whose aim is to cooperate with humans. The robots developed so far are either rather expensive or unsuitable for manipulation tasks. This article presents the result of a project which wishes to demonstrate the feasibility of an affordable humanoid robot. R1 is able to navigate, and interact with the environment (grasping and carrying objects, operating switches, opening doors etc). The robot is also equipped with a speaker, microphones and it mounts a display in the head to support interaction using natural channels like speech or (simulated) eye movements. The final cost of the robot is expected to range around that of a family car, possibly, when produced in large quantities, even significantly lower. This goal was tackled along three synergistic directions: use of polymeric materials, light-weight design and implementation of novel actuation solutions. These lines, as well as the robot with its main features, are described hereafter

Event reconstruction for KM3NeT/ORCA using convolutional neural networks

The KM3NeT research infrastructure is currently under construction at two locations in the Mediterranean Sea. The KM3NeT/ORCA water-Cherenkov neutrino detector off the French coast will instrument several megatons of seawater with photosensors. Its main objective is the determination of the neutrino mass ordering. This work aims at demonstrating the general applicability of deep convolutional neural networks to neutrino telescopes, using simulated datasets for the KM3NeT/ORCA detector as an example. To this end, the networks are employed to achieve reconstruction and classification tasks that constitute an alternative to the analysis pipeline presented for KM3NeT/ORCA in the KM3NeT Letter of Intent. They are used to infer event reconstruction estimates for the energy, the direction, and the interaction point of incident neutrinos. The spatial distribution of Cherenkov light generated by charged particles induced in neutrino interactions is classified as shower- or track-like, and the main background processes associated with the detection of atmospheric neutrinos are recognized. Performance comparisons to machine-learning classification and maximum-likelihood reconstruction algorithms previously developed for KM3NeT/ORCA are provided. It is shown that this application of deep convolutional neural networks to simulated datasets for a large-volume neutrino telescope yields competitive reconstruction results and performance improvements with respect to classical approaches