الملخص الإنجليزي
Leftover water from the oil fields is one of the biggest problems facing many oil producing countries. The oil-tainted salty water (Production water) is produced from the oil field when the oil is brought up from the well. This huge quantity of contaminated water, which can be four times the volume of the produced oil, can create an environmental problem. To tackle this issue, a new technique, known as Solar Dew Membrane Technology was developed. It consists of membrane distillation which uses solar energy as the driving force to purify the production water. The objective of this study was to test the possibility of using solar membrane distillation technology (Solar Dew) to purify the produced water and evaluate the effect of treated water on soil and plant tissues An experiment was run at the Nimr site, in southern Oman, with reedbed outlet salty water and using the membrane desalination system, which depends on the solar energy. The solar dew produced water was tested on two crops. Due to the lower than expected fresh water production capacity of the solar membrane distillation system (i.e. 0.75L/mod vs. 1.5L/m®d), the field testing of crops was limited to date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and Tahiti lime (Citrus latifolia) trees. Samples of water, soil and plants were analyzed for presence of heavy metals. Plant tissue analysis indicated that there was no build up of heavy metals, while analysis of soil indicated' a slight buildup of salts. This was attributed to the use of sewage treatment-plant (STP) water prior to irrigation with Solar Dew water. The salt content of the treated water varied from low (11 mg/L) to acceptable (122 mg/L). It was demonstrated that crop growth could be achieved using reed-bed-outlet production water treated with Solar Dew membrane technology.
