MYCELX brings water treatment technology to Permian Basin TX
A brand new water treatment technology born of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill is making its approach to the Permian Basin.
MYCELX founder Hal Alper developed the MYCELX polymer, a fabric that completely and chemically bonds hydrocarbons on contact somewhat than merely filtering them. In 1994, he co-founded MYCELX Technologies with petroleum business veteran John Mansfield Sr. The firm has since grown from a single polymer innovation into a worldwide water treatment supplier with experience in produced water treatment throughout onshore and offshore operations.
Following profitable deployments worldwide, the corporate lately shifted its technique to concentrate on the Permian Basin, citing the worth creation and efficiency enhancements its technology delivers in produced water treatment.
MYCELX gives two major treatment methods for Permian Basin shoppers that work collectively, stated Garrett Rasor, enterprise growth supervisor for oil and gasoline.
One is the MAC — MYCELX Advanced Coalescer — and the second is REGEN, the Regenerative Media Filter. Combined, the applied sciences can recuperate 99% sales-quality oil from produced water whereas additionally amassing suspended solids. Rasor stated the treatment may very well be used earlier than the water is shipped to saltwater disposal wells.
Rasor stated the methods may also be used as pretreatment for applied sciences that course of produced water for useful reuse, desalination or evaporation.
REGEN is a backwashable media filter that generates recycle-quality water that may be positioned in a frac pond or bought to a midstream or treatment firm. He stated the system operates inside a small footprint.
The two applied sciences are additionally cost-effective as a result of they require no chemical substances, produce no emissions and require no labor as a result of they’re automated.
Jim Weidler, govt vice chairman of enterprise growth, stated the corporate was awarded its first field-scale undertaking utilizing REGEN within the Permian Basin in November by a significant midstream operator. It will start operations within the third or fourth quarter, he stated.
Weidler referred to as the undertaking the corporate’s showcase and stated it’s producing vital curiosity, together with the MAC technology.
The firm lately carried out a pilot examine with a supermajor operator within the Delaware Basin utilizing the two-stage MAC and REGEN system to enhance oil restoration, scale back solids and meet recycle water high quality specs. After three months and 55 days of information assortment, the corporate discovered the paired applied sciences had been in a position to obtain produced fluids from the pipeline and exceed the less-than-15-parts-per-million specification for oil and grease, with a mean effluent oil-in-water measurement of 11.64 components per million.
In the longer term, Weidler stated the corporate hopes to provide its PFAS treatment technology to the Permian Basin.
