Denmark’s LiqTech International Inc has entered into an exclusive close cooperation agreement with engineering and construction company Constructora Conconcreto South America in Colombia and Venezuela following a successful 12-month trial with LiqTech ceramic membranes for water filtration in the oil & gas industry.

Over the last 12 months, Conconcreto has been working to validate the LiqTech ceramic membrane technology for the oil & gas industry and has successfully concluded field trials with Ecopetrol subsidiary Hocol in Colombia. 

The field trials included replacing flotation units and walnut shell filters for the polishing of produced water for re-injection purpose. The SiC membranes were operated upstream and downstream of a skimmer unit.

Typical membrane feed water with oil concentration of 20-100 ppm was consistently treated to less than five ppm oil in water for re-injection purpose (95% of the time below 0.7 ppm oil in water). The production capacity per unit membrane surface area was in the range 200-350 L/m2.h when operating prior to a skimmer unit and 400-600 L/m2.h when operating downstream of the skimmer unit. 

The trial period was followed up with a commercial agreement between Conconcreto and Hocol for the operation of a SiC membrane installation for produced water treatment.

Conconcreto is currently certifying LiqTech’s Silicon Carbide (SiC) membranes with INTEVEP for the oil & gas market in Venezuela.