Latest Insights On Water & Wastewater Treatment For The Petroleum & Refining Industry

1. Michigan Pipeline Standoff Could Affect Water Protection And Indigenous Rights Across The U.S. 8/17/2023

   Should states and Indigenous nations be able to influence energy projects they view as harmful or contrary to their laws and values? This question lies at the center of a heated debate over Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 pipeline, which carries oil and natural gas across Wisconsin and Michigan.

2. Fracking Disclosures Show Widespread Use Of Hazardous Chemicals 4/3/2023

   Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, is a process in which workers inject fluids underground under high pressure. The fluids fracture coal beds and shale rock, allowing the gas and oil trapped within the rock to rise to the surface. Advances in fracking launched a huge expansion of U.S. oil and gas production starting in the early 2000s but also triggered intense debate over its health and environmental impacts.

3. Moving Towards Effective Management Of Produced Water 8/18/2022

   You cannot produce oil without water, because water is present naturally in both onshore and offshore oil reservoirs. This naturally occurring water is called produced water. Produced water has a simple to complex composition that is variable, and it is considered as a mixture of dissolved and particulate organic and inorganic chemicals (Al-Ghouti et al. 2019) with an average of 7 to 10 barrels of produced water being generated for each barrel of oil during the course of an operation (Guerra, Dahm, and Dundorf 2011).

4. Produced Water Management: An Overlooked Subject In Academia 8/9/2022

   Water is one of the world's most critical natural resources, but too many people take it for granted, raising awareness of its importance — and complexities — is too often left out of public discourse. My recent visit to a few engineering colleges as a STEM ambassador made me realize that many engineering programs are offered today than when I went to school.

5. Water Is Energy 6/21/2022

   More than 2,000 years ago, Greek and Roman engineers harnessed the power of water to drive grain mills, and the technology soon spread as far as China, where it was used to forge iron. By the 4th century, the Romans had scaled up water wheel technology to build a massive flour plant in Arles, France, powered by 16 overshot water wheels. During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci sketched out visions of water-driven sawmills, forges, factories, and spinning works.

6. Expanding Industrial Applications For Automation In Pumping 4/8/2022

   The Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, and connectivity in drives is the future, and many market segments must modernize to compete. The world is more connected than ever with new technological advances that produce higher process efficiency and time savings. To stay competitive in this environment, companies must include automated solutions such as remote management, monitoring, and control.

7. Brine Management — A Necessity, Not A Luxury 3/15/2022

   Brine is everywhere: desalination plants, gas and oil drillings, energy generation plants, mines, cooling towers, food manufacturing plants, chip fabrication, and many other industries that require high volumes of water. They all generate brine as a byproduct of their processes.

8. New Hampshire Puts $350 Million To Work From A Successful Lawsuit Over MTBE Contamination 1/25/2022

   From cleaner water to infrastructure upgrades, good stories are easy to find after the state of New Hampshire set out to hold polluters accountable for contaminating groundwater with methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), a gasoline additive now banned or limited in several states. Through private well testing, watershed protection and new water facilities, the people of the Granite State are turning the tide on water contamination and restoring the safety and reliability of their drinking water supplies thanks to bold action to make sure polluters pay for damage.

9. Nationwide Water Shortages Demand New Innovative Solutions In Clean Water 10/26/2021

   In the spring of 2019, U.S. government-funded research on watersheds revealed a dire outlook for the future of water availability in the United States. Between population growth and climate change, the study reports that “serious water shortages'' are likely to occur within the next 55 years.

10. Importance Of Filtration in Water Treatment For Process Water & Wastewater Reuse 2/2/2021

    Filtration is very important for many commercial/industrial process water & wastewater reuse applications. In reality, pumping wastewater from somewhere like a refinery, food/beverage, textile or oil produced water application requires pre-filtration due to high amount of suspended solids in these typical applications. In fact, there are typically several filtration and treatment steps in these applications to ensure that the treated water meets the required discharge or reuse standard. In addition, filtration in water treatment ensures reduced operating cost on downstream polishing water treatment systems.