15 Environmental Geochemistry and Health Impacts

This session welcomes research on contaminant occurrence, fate and transport, and impacts on human and environmental health. Interdisciplinary contributions with implications for environmental remediation and natural resources management are encouraged.

Monday, 18 May 2026
1:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Alvarado G

Non-Targeted Mass Spectrometry Reveals Contaminant Persistence and Compositional Restructuring in Produced Water Treated by Thermal and Membrane Processes

Paper number: 15-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:15 PM – 2:35 PM

Authors

Abstract

Produced water is the largest byproduct of oil and gas extraction and is a potential water resource in arid regions, yet uncertainty surrounding safety currently limits reuse. The remaining organic fraction can contain residual hydrocarbon and industrial chemicals and byproducts that are not characterized by conventional monitoring of water quality metrics and targeted chemical analyses. In this work, non-targeted high-resolution mass spectrometry was used to track compositional changes in dissolved organic matter across three produced water treatment systems that incorporated thermal, oxidative, adsorption, and membrane-based processes. While each treatment system had different configurations, they each improved water quality metrics progressively and reduced the number of identified contaminants, where each respective desalination stage in each treatment system removed the most organic features. Specific hydrocarbon and industrial contaminants persisted through treatment and formed potential byproducts that are relatively more abundant in the final product water. However, toxicity estimations also reduce progressively through each treatment system both in the toxicity of known contaminants and the predicted toxicity of the remaining organic fraction. Transformations of specific nitrogen-containing compounds were identified and tracked from the remaining organic matter features across each sample sequence. These findings demonstrate the usage of non-targeted mass spectrometry for identifying compositional changes to the remaining organic matter fraction across different treatment systems and technologies. Characterizing contaminants and the organic fraction that remains provides the molecular-level insight needed to evaluate treatment process performance and improve water monitoring efforts, guiding future produced water fit-for-purpose reuse and disposal efforts.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 4

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026RM-410626

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