Can CBM product water be treated to make it more usable?
The only ways to lower the salt concentration in saline and/or sodic water are through dilution with non-saline water, reverse osmosis, or salt precipitation with an evaporation process that leaves salt behind and traps evaporated water. Reverse osmosis is expensive, and evaporation and salt precipitation treatment is neither economical nor feasible with large quantities of saline CBM water. Dilution of CBM product water is only possible if there is a large source of non-saline water with which to dilute the saline water. It is possible to alter the chemistry of sodic water by adding calcium and magnesium. This does not eliminate or reduce sodium, but changes the ratio of sodium to other salts, thus decreasing the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR). The net result is more saline water with the sodium salt still dissolved in the water. This approach is not likely to work with CBM product water because the added calcium will combine with carbonate from the CBM water and precipitate out as cal
