EcoTecOil Company offers services for the full disposal of drilling waste directly on the drilling site with resulting the secondary raw materials

A big challenge while pitless drilling is the handling of drilling waste (drilled cuttings). Today, the majority of drilling companies employ contractors that undertake to promptly load waste on transport and place them in industrial waste landfills. The main disadvantages of this approach are the constant running of heavy vehicles on the drilling site, interruptions in the process of loading waste, especially while cementing, replacement of drilling mud and accidental discharges. Also, a large amount of transport loaded with untreated drilling waste appears on local roads resulting in broken roads, waste spills, accidents, public outrage. Also, this approach provides for no disposal (processing and use of waste to manufacture new products). Even though that by signing the Association Agreement with the European Union, Ukraine committed to introduce the European principles of waste handling. The basic principle in waste handling is to obtain secondary raw materials. Also, it is the waste handling while pitless drilling that raises the most questions from the public during public hearings and from the regional authorities when approving field development licenses, and cases of unauthorized waste disposal are no longer a rarity.

Only in 2017-2018, 5 facts of unauthorized disposal of drilling waste were recorded resulting in media coverage, public and government outrage, reputational losses for drilling companies. And this is despite the fact that in such cases they are often fault-free, since it is the result of contractors’ desire to reduce transportation costs and shorten the route. This is what leads to the disposal of drilling waste on the nearest landfills of domestic waste, fields and forest plantations.

Gleb Ryzhov, EcoTech-Oil LLC Project Manager, tells about the new approach to the disposal of drilling cuttings:

Our company's specialists have been working in the waste handling market for more than 10 years, developing and implementing various technologies for the disposal of problem waste. All the environmental and energy commissions, public hearings deal with the drilled cuttings and the need to use normal disposal methods. This is a fairy acute problem and we set a goal to solve it. The main thing for us is to do it correctly from the environmental point of view and convenient for drilling companies. We had to resolve several issues:
- continuous receipt of drilling waste, the volume of receipt of which often exceeds 200 m3 per hour;
- de-watering and deactivation of drilling waste and maximum return of water to prepare drilling mud;
- reduction of truck traffic on the drilling site and local roads;
- proper use of treated waste;
- obtaining a full package of permits, analyzes, examinations.

So, as a result of hard work and a large number of experiments, the “Filtering Pool” technology appeared, the purpose of which is full recycling of drilling waste into secondary raw materials. To apply this technology in Ukraine, a full package of permits was received, all analyzes and expertise were carried out.
Today, in Ukraine, jobs were completed on the disposal of drilling waste at four drilling sites using the “Filtering Pool”. More than 4,000 m3 of drilling waste was accepted and disposed, and over 1,000 m3 of feed water was returned to be reused.

Following the results of the disposal of drilling waste, the technology provides for derivatives:

- filtered water that can be used to prepare the drilling mud, discharge to the waste treatment facilities, use for the technical needs of enterprises. These methods of treatment confirm the results of the examination and recommendations of the A.M. Marzeev Institute of Public Health;
- safe dry residue, “Compound of minerals for territory arrangement “ECOTEC-GEO + (TU U 08.9-40371287-002:2018)”. This compound is intended to fill landfills of solid household waste and solid industrial waste, plan territories while constructing roads and industrial facilities, reclaim quarries, mines and other man-made facilities, arrange bypass and barrage dams, shafts, embankments etc. These methods confirm TU, the results of the examination and recommendations of the A.M. Marzeev Institute of Public Health.
- we install the "Filtering Pool" on the site prepared by us or a customer. The size of the facility is calculated depending on the design amount of drilling waste;
- with the help of special pumps drilling waste is transported to the facility via a pulp pipeline directly from receiving tanks.
- while being transported, waste is treated with flocculants, coagulants and other reagents, in order to bind the dry residue, separate water and neutralize chemical elements;
- through the filtering wall of the pool, water flows into the bypass channel and then into the receiving tank, from where it is returned to be reused to prepare drilling mud or to be removed, while the dry residue is left in the “Filtering Pool” until the end of drilling.

The inventor, chief engineer of Ekotek-Oil LLC Yuri Mamonov, told about the core of the technology and the technical problems that had to be solved.

When the technology was first introduced, many technical and engineering issues had to be solved. After all, we became part of the drilling process, which should work like a clock, as one well-oiled machine. We ensured uninterrupted reception of waste with large discharges, construction of a system of pumping-out and feeding of waste, a system of waste treatment with flocculants and reagents.
The technological technique that we proposed to use while working with drilling waste has been used for many years to de-water sludge, sediment and flooded industrial waste.

When introducing the "Filtering Pool" technology, we faced the need to adjust the technological method to the characteristics of the drilling:
- twenty-four-hour, 4-6 months continuous operation;
- constantly changing granulometric texture of the drilled rock;
- use of different drilling fluids and change of their chemical and physical characteristics;
- uneven flow of drill cuttings from 0 to hundreds of cubes per hour.

The design of the filtering pool is a fabricated steel structure of a circular shape installed on a waterproof platform with bypass channels for filtered water. The walls are made of specially selected filtering cloth. Before getting into the pool, the sludge is treated with flocculants and coagulants for the enlargement of fine particles, which in turn results in higher rate of water loss. As a result, we get filtered technical water and dehydrated rock. The size of pools and their capacity can be easily adjusted to the design volume of the well.

The technology provides for additional effect on the sludge in order to neutralize toxic components in drilling waste.

From our point of view, our technology plays very well into pitless drilling. It preserves the main property of the barn - storage facility and removes the main drawback of the barn - the contaminant.

The “Filtering Pool” technology reduces the toxicity of drilling waste, separates it into liquid and solid phases, reuses water and treats the rock not as waste requiring mandatory disposal, but as raw material for further use.

Our company is currently engaged in receiving sludge on four drilling sites. We constantly upgrade our skills and remove our drawbacks.