Every barrel of oil pulled from the ground drags up huge amounts of dirty water — and getting rid of it is expensive and wasteful. A Spanish SME built special ceramic filters so tiny they work at the nanoscale, letting oil companies clean that wastewater and pump it right back into the process. Think of it like a super-precise coffee filter, but instead of grounds it catches oil, chemicals, and grit from industrial water. The goal is to cut the amount of fresh water oil operations need by up to 80%.
Oil and gas operations generate enormous volumes of highly polluted produced water — the single largest byproduct of extraction. Disposing of this water is expensive, environmentally damaging, and increasingly regulated, while the operations simultaneously consume massive amounts of fresh water. Companies need a cost-effective way to clean and reuse this wastewater on-site.
Likuid built two full-scale demonstration units (DEMO 1 and DEMO 2) with operation manuals and maintenance documentation, plus a backpulse prototype for membrane cleaning. The integrated solution combines proprietary ceramic nanomembranes with fouling monitoring software and control tools in a turnkey filtration package.
If you are an onshore oil producer dealing with massive volumes of produced water and rising disposal costs — this project developed ceramic nanomembrane filtration units demonstrated in Canadian SAGD and tailing pond settings that can reuse up to 99% of produced water, cutting your fresh water demand by up to 80%.
If you are an offshore operator struggling with produced water treatment and tightening discharge regulations — this project built fully integrated filtration solutions already tested with Petrobras that achieve up to 99% water reuse. The membrane price target is 4 times lower than previous generations, making offshore deployment cost-effective.
If you are an EPC or OEM company looking for a competitive edge in oilfield water treatment — this project offers ceramic nanomembranes with advanced fouling monitoring software, delivered as turnkey filtration solutions. The target market covers 680 Mill.€ onshore and 490 Mill.€ offshore segments.
The project targeted reducing the membrane price by up to 4 times through upscaling of the nanomembrane production process. This cost reduction is central to making the solution competitive in both onshore and offshore markets.
Yes. The project delivered two full demonstration units (DEMO 1 and DEMO 2) with complete operation manuals and maintenance instructions. An onshore demo was planned in Canada for SAGD and tailing ponds, and an offshore demo study was conducted with Petrobras, who had already tested Likuid's membranes before the project.
The ceramic nanomembranes use a proprietary production process owned by Likuid Nanotek SL. The technology includes integrated fouling monitoring and control software. As a single-partner SME project, all IP is held by Likuid. Licensing terms would need to be discussed directly with them.
Two segments: onshore with a 680 Mill.€ target market covering USA, Canada, Colombia, and Mexico, and offshore with a 490 Mill.€ target market across North Europe and Latin America. Customers include EPC, OEM, and OFS companies as well as oil producers directly.
The solution targets reuse of up to 99% of produced water, which translates to up to 80% reduction in fresh water demand for oil extraction operations. These figures come from the project objectives.
Likuid Nanotek SL is a Spanish SME that received SME Instrument Phase 2 funding, indicating the EU assessed them as having strong commercialization potential. The project aimed for international expansion through subsidiaries and strategic partners. Based on available project data, the project website was likuid-cleanoil.com.
Produced water is the largest byproduct of oil and gas production and faces increasingly strict disposal regulations worldwide. This solution directly addresses compliance by enabling water reuse instead of disposal, relevant to environmental regulations in all target markets.
CleanOil is a single-company project run entirely by Likuid Nanotek SL, a Spanish SME. With 1 partner, 1 country, and 100% industry composition, this is a focused commercialization effort rather than a research collaboration. The SME Instrument Phase 2 format means this was competitively selected by the EU specifically for its market potential. Likuid already had a working product that Petrobras tested before this project — the EU funding was about scaling production and demonstrating in real-world conditions, not basic research. For a business buyer, this means you are dealing directly with the technology owner and manufacturer, not navigating a multi-partner consortium.
Likuid Nanotek SL is a Spanish SME based in Spain. SciTransfer can facilitate a direct introduction to their team.
Want to explore how this nanomembrane water treatment technology could solve your produced water challenges? SciTransfer can arrange a direct introduction to the Likuid team and provide a detailed technology brief tailored to your operations.
