Sustainable Produced Water Treatment in Oil and Gas Industry: Efficiency Analysis, Empirical Pollutant Removal, and Parameter Correlation

Abstract

Introduction: Produced water treatment from the oil and gas industry faces significant environmental challenges due to the use of electrical energy resulting in high carbon emissions, particularly CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O. This study evaluates the environmental performance at the MGS WTP using a Life Cycle Assessment approach to identify environmental hotspot emissions and their mitigation potential. Methods: A gate-to-gate LCA approach was applied using primary operational data at 2024. The study focused on the impacts of climate change, ecosystem quality, and resource depletion. Annual electricity consumption of 45.33 GWh was converted using the national emission factor (0.73 kg CO₂-eq/kWh). Sensitivity analysis scenarios were performed for variations in energy efficiency of ±5%, ±10%, and ±15%, and an emission factor of ±20%. Results: Total annual carbon emissions reached ≈33 × 10⁶ kg CO₂-eq, dominated by the aeration system and main pump (>70%). The impact on human health was 780,121.42 kg CO2-eq/L, ecosystem quality was 383.50 kg CO₂-eq/L, and natural resource depletion was 42,053.36 kg CO₂-eq/L. Increasing energy efficiency (+15%) and reducing emission factor (-20%) reduced emissions by more than 12 × 10⁶ kg CO₂-eq/year. Conclusion: Optimizing the aeration system and integrating renewable energy effectively reduced the carbon footprint at the MGS WTP. The results of this study support achieving the SDGs 6, 12, and 13, also serve as a basis for Indonesia’s sustainable energy toward Net Zero Emission 2060.