Abstract: The present invention provides a method of treating the waste brine generated by the regeneration step in a water softener system and for recovering the treated waste brine so that it can be utilized as the regeneration feed for the water softener regeneration step thereby, requiring substantially lesser amounts of fresh salt.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method for enhancing hydrocarbon production from a subsurface hydrocarbon-bearing formation. The system includes a mechanical fluid treatment unit that substantially reduces the concentration of precursor ions from the injection water. The treated water is injected under pressure into an injection well to cause the hydrocarbons to flow toward a production well. A chemical unit injects selected amounts of additives into the injection well to inhibit in-situ growth of crystals from insoluble salt precipitates formed due to the interaction of precursor ions present in the injected water and ions residents in the reservoir. The selected chemicals and their respective amounts are determined at least partially based on reservoir characteristics and the concentration of precursor ions in the treated water.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of separating a multiple phase liquid medium comprising a first liquid phase and a second liquid phase wherein the medium is contacted with a first filter, said filter having been wetted by a wetting agent miscible with the first liquid phase but immiscible with the second liquid phase; whereby the first liquid phase passes through the filter, thus obtaining a filtrate substantially free of the second liquid phase. In a preferred embodiment, separation of a multiple phase liquid medium comprising liquid fossil fuel, water and biocatalyst employing one or two filters is disclosed. One filter will preferentially collect either the liquid fossil fuel or aqueous phase as the filtrate. The retentate will then flow to the second filter which will collect the component not removed before, i.e. the aqueous phase or liquid fossil fuel, as the filtrate. The remaining retentate, containing the biocatalyst, can then, preferably, be recycled.