I see RG Made the Cdn Oil & Gas
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Growing numbers of companies are moving into the coalbed methane extraction field throughout North America. The prevalence of methane trapped in coal seams has driven more producers into the industry, and spurred on development to ease environmental issues surrounding methane production.
One of the key environmental factors faced by methane producers is how to deal with the massive amounts of water used to extract the gas from underground. Once the process is complete, the produced water is high in sodium and bicarbonates, and must be treated or it would have a negative effect on downstream ecosystems.
In Wyoming, where thousands of coalbed methane wells have been placed, two companies are exploring the potential of a new water treatment method that will, when in place, clear salts from produced water and generate a final product safe for everything from irrigation to drinking.
Working with RG Global Lifestyles, the companies are placing the Catalyx ion exchange water treatment system in its first working application. Under the contracts, RG Global will install and operate the systems, cleaning water for later discharge and producing useful byproducts at the same time. “The water that comes out, specifically in Wyoming and most coalbed methane areas, will have a lot of bicarbonate simply by the nature of the reaction that happens for methane to form at the interface of water and coal,” explained Juzer Jangbarwala, Chief Technology Officer for RG Global Lifestyles. “A lot of water needs to be extracted, and if it’s high in sodium and bicarbonates, and the pH is off the scale, it’s unsuitable for release back into the environment.” Wyoming’s booming coalbed methane industry has generated problems surrounding that water, with lawsuits and protests through the Powder River basin. Lawsuits, including from the neighbour-ing state of Montana, have placed a sharp focus on discharge into the Powder and Tongue Rivers, which have both been affected by produced water in the past. “Because Wyoming is a landlocked state, you can’t just release this water into an ocean – it has to be either deep-well injected or evaporated, and of course everything has a cost,” Jangbarwala noted. “The more volume you have, the bigger a surface area you need on an evaporation pond, or the more you have to pay to inject it.” Rather than using the more well-known Higgins loop system that features resin moving through the entire system, the Catalyx system has been developed with a stationary resin system. The Higgins loop would be hampered by the fact that optimum resins for removal of sodium and bicarbonates expand by 100 percent when spent, and would jam the system, an issue that is avoided by a stationary system. The process is intended to solve the problems of high pH and high sodium and leave a final product that will have no harm on the environment – while also generating byproducts that can be reusedin other industries. “With a single medium, this process removes sodium and bicarbonates; it converts the bicarbonates into carbon dioxide, and sodium is removed to within limits so that it is safe to irrigate the soil or even drink,” explained Jangbarwala. “We can use sulfuric acid to regenerate the resins, instead of hydrochloric acid, which means there’s a much lower cost for acid use, and the waste is of such a small volume, we can put it into small ponds and allow the salt to dry and crystallize.”
Greener, cheaper production
The salt generated, sodium sulphate decahydrate, is used in the detergent industry, and can be sold after production. That helps cut the overall operating cost of the process, he said, and also helps make the system greener by cutting the amount of waste generated.
Not all the water is treated, Jangbar-wala pointed out, as water being directed into rivers needs certain levels of minerals to ensure life downstream is not affected. He said the company constantly monitors the mixture of water, and the level of treatment needed.
RG Global has opted to offer the Catalyx system as a build-own-operate program, where the company will install and maintain the equipment and customers pay on a per-barrel basis, Jangbarwala said. That way, the company can cut costs by selling the byproducts, he noted, and customers have no up-front costs with reduced per-barrel rates.
Systems are built in modular forms, with modules expected to process 10,000 and 30,000 barrels per day. A unit being installed for Yates Petroleum as part of a $20 million contract, expected to come online before the end of 2007, is being built with three 30,000-barrel modules, while Black Diamond Energy, another methane producer, will use two 10,000-barrel units.
While RG Global is currently targeted on Wyoming specifically, Jangbarwala said hopes are to move into the opening Canadian coalbed methane market. “I know some areas have tremendous amounts of coalbed methane, but I think we need to show the proof in the pudding, then come back to show them there is a better solution,” he said. “In Wyoming, only about seven percent of the viable leases have been released so far, but because of environmental issues there are injunctions on them. If we can prove there’s an economically viable solution, it would be great for all kinds of economies.”
Other applications
The technology is likely expandable into other wastewater industries, he added, including municipal wastewater. “That would use the same technology, with different chemistry. We’re applying it to nitrate removal in Israel – there are some very large municipal systems where the water is not potable anymore because of nitrates,” he said. “We would be able to do a zero-discharge nitrate system, and generate potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate fertilizer as a waste product. Or, we could apply this technology as an arsenic remover and end up generating a wood conditioning chemical or chemicals used in the glass industry.” |
