The purpose of this paper was to develop and present a process suitable for the purification of the so-called produced waters, a by-product of crude oil extraction, by devising a treatment train aimed at industrial and agricultural water reuse. If compared to municipal wastewaters, produced waters have a very high salinity that requires specific attention for designing and managing the specific treatment device. Membranes, commonly used in the production of desalted water, appear to be a suitable technique to deal with these issues. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive process scheme for produced water treatment train: A Vibratory Shear Enhanced Processing (VSEP) membrane system is in charge of the secondary treatment, whereas a reverse osmosis (RO) unit realizes the tertiary treatment. Material and energy balances are carried out on the whole process, while the RO process is simulated by the IMSDesign Software by Hydranautics. We analyzed three different scenarios, at increasing produced waters salinity, getting a stream outlet as purified water with such low pollutants concentration and salinity to be reusable for different purposes. The RO process is carried out with a single-step or a double-step filtration; a cost analysis, performed on the different case studies, allowed computing the final specific costs per cubic meter of treated water, showing that a double filtration step allows a lower salinity water, albeit raising the costs up to about 5 €/m³, a high price justified only if a ultrapure water should be required for specific applications.

This study extends the application and validation of the Gibbs Free Energy Gradient Method (GMM) for modelling gasification processes, focusing on scaling up from pilot to commercial operations. The model simulates syngas production using poplar wood and olive pomace briquettes under various gasification conditions. Experimental data from a downdraft gasifier were employed to refine the model parameters, achieving accurate predictions of syngas composition with an average error below 8%. Sensitivity analyses highlight the impact of operating conditions, particularly temperature and air flow rates, on the syngas calorific value, hydrogen yield, and energy efficiency. These results emphasize the potential of biomass residues, such as olive pomace, for sustainable energy production in a circular economy context. The findings demonstrate the robustness of the GMM for predicting gasification performance and offer practical guidance for scaling up biomass-to-energy systems while optimizing efficiency and reducing waste.