M. A. Salman, Modi Ahmed, H. Al-Sairfi, Y. Al-Foudari
Sulfate minerals (SMs), such as BaSO4, SrSO4, and CaSO4, precipitate when incompatible solutions from the oil industry, such as seawater (SW) and high-salinity brine solutions (HSBSs), are mixed during the oil production process. To investigate the potentiality to extract SM by mixing three different brine solutions, such as HSBS-1, -2, and -3, with SW, at different temperatures and pressures, a practical simple model was used to predict the saturation index (SI), the quantity of precipitated minerals (Y), and the induction time (tind) required for precipitation. From the results, it was found that CaSO4 hemihydrate and SrSO4 yield lower amounts of precipitate. BaSO4 precipitation ranges from 20 to 60 mg/L and 1500 mg/L of CaSO4 anhydrous under ambient conditions. These findings suggest that recovering low-solubility minerals is technically feasible and environmentally preferable to direct disposal.