Toxicity evaluation of produced formation waters after filtration treatment

Loredana Manfra, Chiara Maggi, Jessica Bianchi, Michela Mannozzi, Olga Faraponova, Livia Mariani, Fulvio Onorati, Andrea Tornambè, Claudia Virno Lamberti, Erika Magaletti

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DOI: 10.4236/ns.2010.21005                

Abstract

During the last years many authors have char-acterized the produced formation waters (PFWs) with respect to chemical compounds and toxic-ity. Most of data are related to PFWs collected on offshore platform after treatment process. The available results showed that the particulate phase had an influence on PFW toxicity. As-suming the toxicity of PFWs treated on platform, the aim of this paper is to study the toxicity of these PFWs after a further filtration treatment carried out in laboratory. For this purpose PFWs were sampled from three natural gas platforms located in the Adriatic Sea (Italy) below treat-ment system. The eco-toxicological bioassays have been conducted on test-organisms be-longing to different trophic levels such as bac-teria, algae, crustaceans and fishes. The PFWs resulted toxic according to an overall assess-ment obtained through the bioassays. Further-more, it has been possible to identify the spe-cies that were more sensitive to the tested PFWs, namely Tigriopus fulvus, Dicentrarchus labrax and Vibrio fischeri. Besides, a chemical char-acterization was reported related to the con-taminants present in the PFWs to go with eco-toxicological assessment. Barium, zinc and manganese showed the most concentrations among the metals and the lower molecular weight components were common among the organic compounds. Some differences among PFWs were observed both for toxicity and chemical composition. The highest toxicity was recorded in PFWs (PFW1 and PFW2) containing the highest concentrations of some metals (Ba, Mn and Zn) and/or BTEX.

Keywords

Adriatic Sea (Italy); Offshore Platforms; Natural Gas Production Fields; Produced Formation Waters; Toxicity Assessment; Bacterium (Vibrio Fischeri); Algae (Dunaliella Tertiolecta and Phaeodactylum Tricornutum); Crustaceans (Artemia Franciscana and Tigriopus Fulvus); Fish (Dicentrarchus Labrax); Chemical Characterization

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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