Aqueous Cleaning of Drill Cuttings Produced Using Oil-Based Muds/Fluids

Drill cuttings arise from drilling exploration wells, new production wells and work-overs on producing wells. They contain agglomerates of rock fragments, oils, hydrocarbons, salts, drilling muds and other chemicals, some of which are hazardous and toxic. The chemistry of many modern oil-based drilling muds is formulated to remain stable under the high temperature and pressure conditions present during drilling.

Current techniques used to clean and decontaminate drill cuttings prior to disposal are energy intensive and costly: e.g. by thermal desorption using hammer mills or drying at temperatures of 350°C or higher. High pressure washing systems and various surfactant formulations have been tested for cleaning drill cuttings. However these tests failed, because they were either unable to separate the agglomerates and release crude oil particulates or they created large volumes of difficult to manage secondary waste.

Global Advantech combines proven physical and electrochemical technology with innovative chemistry to build systems, which efficiently clean and remediate drill cuttings from wells drilled using both oil-based muds/fluids (OBM) and water-based muds/fluids (WBM). These systems utilise:

• Cavitation scrubbing (see page 4) to separate adhering and adsorbed oil and hydrocarbons from drill cutting particulates
• Electrocoagulation cells to remove hydrocarbons, suspended particulates, most organic compounds, heavy metals, etc., from the process solution, enabling it to be recycled many times through the cleaning process
• Chemistry to increase the rate of release of adsorbed oils and hydrocarbons from the cutting particulates

The features and benefits of Global Advantech’s aqueous systems for cleaning and decontamination of drill cuttings include:

• Mobile and static plant configurations available
• Throughput capacities: 1 tonne per hour to 20+ tonnes per hour
• Oil/hydrocarbon reduction to <1/0% and two cleaning passes to 0.2%-0.5%, depending upon porosity of rock fragments
• Non-thermal processing – ambient temperature operation, therefore substantially lower energy consumption (<20%) compared to thermal desorption plant with similar processing capacity
• Low environmental impact, with minimal emissions
• Use available water supplies for operation - fresh, brackish or seawater
• 75% lower capital costs and 80% lower operating costs compared to thermal desorption plant with similar processing capacity
• All process water recycled - treated to remove dissolved/emulsified oils, suspended ultra-fines, heavy metals, etc.

	Global Advantech’s Cavitation Scrubbing System (5 tonne/hour)	Thermal Desorption Hammer Mill (3 tonne/hour max.)
Energy requirement	150KW (peak electricity demand)	1,000KW (750KW diesel engine + electricity demand)
Hydrocarbon recovery	Most, no degradation	Most, with thermal degradation
Gaseous emissions control for combustion products + plant exhaust	N/A	Required
Carbon footprint	Low	Very high
Environmental impact	Minimal	Very high
Freshwater requirement	None, process works with seawater	Cooling, emissions abatement
Water treatment system	Integral Oil, BOD+COD removal	Additional Oil, BOD+COD removal required
ATEX Zone 2 configuration available	Yes	No
Building requirements	Mobile configurations: self‑contained in ISO containers, with integral bunds	Building with concrete floor and steel support structure for plant required
System maintenance costs	Low	High
System capital cost	USD 1.1million	USD 4.5million -3 tonne/hour 0% moisture content -1 tonne/hour 15% moisture content

Advantages of Global Advantech's Water-based Drill Cuttings Cleaning Systems Over Thermal Desorption

The following table is a comparison between Global Advantech's water-based cavitation scrubbing system and conventional thermal desorption for the removal and recovery of base oil from drilling cuttings:

	Global Advantech aqueous hydrocarbon recovery system	Thermal Desorption (as used for oil-based mud drill cuttings)
Energy requirement	120KW (peak electricity demand)	1,000KW (750KW diesel engine + electricity demand)
Hydrocarbon recovery	Most, no degradation	Most, with thermal degradation
Gaseous  emissions control for combustion products + plant exhaust	N/A	Required
Carbon footprint	Low	Very high
Environmental impact	Minimal	Very high
Freshwater requirement	None, process works with sea water	Cooling, emissions abatement
Water treatment system	Integral Oil, BOD+COD removal	Additional Oil, BOD+COD removal required
ATEX configurations available	Yes	No
Building requirements	Self-contained in ISO containers, with integral bunds	Building with concrete floor and steel support structure for plant required
System capital cost	£0.6million (5 tonnes/hour)	£3.0million (3 tonnes/hour with 0% moisture content, dropping to approx. 1 tonne/hour with 15% moisture content)

For more information, please see: http://www.globaladvantech.com/Oilandgas/Oilandgas.htm

Global Advantech's Flowback Water Treatment System

Global Advantech's Flowback Water Treatment Systems

ADVANTAGES OF GLOBAL ADVANTECH’S FLOWBACK WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

Global Advantech’s flowback water treatment systems have a number of innovative advantages:

• Onsite treatment – removes the cost and environmental impact of transporting water offsite for treatment and reduces cost of importing water for use.
• Simultaneous removal of sulphates, heavy metals, alkaline earths, arsenic, radionuclides, dissolved hydrocarbons, and suspended solids.
• Modular may be configured to treat and reduce a wide range of contaminant levels water to meet local permitted discharge criteria.
• Continuous flow operation.
• Minimisation of waste by-products - less hydrated flocs than conventional chemical treatment alone, therefore lower floc volumes.
• Ambient temperature operation, with substantially lower power consumption than thermal evaporators.
• Self-contained - built into a number of 20/40 feet ISO containers, each with integral bunds – only require power connection and site preparation of level hard standing.
• Fully automated and with telemetry available for remote monitoring.
• Available in configurations for safe area operation and for ATEX Zone 2 operation.

 
 

Hydraulic Fracturing Flowback Water Treatment

FLOWBACK WATER TREATMENT OVERVIEW

Global Advantech has developed systems, which will efficiently treat flowback water arising from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations and for pre-treatment to remove undesirable components from water used to make up fracturing injection solutions. The systems utilise a number of process steps and incorporate innovative design features and benefits to ensure effective and continuous operation.

Global Advantech’s systems are able to remove the majority of sulphates, carbonates, selenates and other cations (divalent and higher), which may be dissolved in water, depending upon its source. The systems also remove dissolved heavy metals (including iron), alkaline earth metals (calcium, strontium, barium and radium), suspended solids and biological materials (bacteria, algae, larvae, etc.) These cations both contribute to acidity and solubilise heavy metals into solution, making these discharges hazardous to the environment.

Global Advantech’s treatment systems utilise:

• Combined chemical conditioning and electrocoagulation treatment to remove sulphate and carbonate cations, heavy metals, radio nuclides, hydrocarbons, most organic chemicals and suspended solids, whilst minimising the production of waste by-products.

• High pressure reverse osmosis to remove dissolved salts.

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