Membrane separation processes are increasingly present in the oil industry, with emphasis on water treatment in E&P activities. Reverse osmosis is a traditional system in offshore installations, generating water with low salinity from seawater. Currently, the use of nanofiltration to remove sulfate from seawater to be injected into reservoirs is common in several units. At the same time, the use of ultrafiltration to remove suspended particles from seawater and produced water has been growing, as well as contactor membranes to deaerate injection water. Large reverse osmosis systems are also considered for generating low salinity water for use in EOR projects.

Even in processes applied on a large scale in E&P operations, there is still room for improvements in terms of operational availability of the system, ease of maintenance and reduction of energy consumption, contributing to the reduction of gases responsible for the greenhouse effect.