Making a difficult process just a little bit cleaner

A CLEAN IDEA: Howard Schachter put off retirement to help create Petro-Cycle Solutions, which has developed a portable way to clean wastewater from hydraulic fracturing so that it can be reused to drill for more oil and natural gas. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
A CLEAN IDEA: Howard Schachter put off retirement to help create Petro-Cycle Solutions, which has developed a portable way to clean wastewater from hydraulic fracturing so that it can be reused to drill for more oil and natural gas. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

According to a recent Baker Hughes oil field services report, more than 1,100 oil and natural gas wells are under exploration and production in the United States. That means extracting these fuels – through a drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking – will require more than 1 billion gallons of water.

That’s a lot of water that must be treated after being used, and if it’s done right, then reused for more fracking. And one local startup is taking on that challenge.

Petro-Cycle Solutions LLC, located in East Providence, specializes in designing and producing water-recycling systems for the oil and gas industry.

“I would classify us as an environmental supermarket, so to speak,” said Howard Schachter, the Petro-Cycle Solutions director of engineering.

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Schachter, a retired metallurgical engineer, has more than 45 years of experience in the field of wastewater remediation. Back in 2005, he designed and donated a water system to Biloxi, Miss., in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to help deliver clean water to the city. At that time, as he was nearing retirement, people took notice and suggested a new adventure.

“They said, ‘This is a problem that we’re seeing in the oil and gas industry,’ ” said Steven Schachter, son of Howard and president of Petro-Cycle Solutions. ” ‘Can you help us solve it?’ ”

After some prodding by his family, the elder Schachter began developing and refining a remediation system that can recycle and reuse water used in the process of drilling for oil and natural gas. What he came up with is a patent-pending, portable remediation system called the HydroPod.

According to Steven Schachter, millions of gallons of water are required during fracking. This is the practice of pumping water-soluble chemicals into the earth at high enough pressures to crack underground rock and help create a pathway for gas and oil to rise to the surface.

According to Petro-Cycle Solutions, 3-4 million gallons of water are needed to frack a new well. Of that, 50 percent comes back to the surface as wastewater. The HydroPod is capable of recycling 90 percent of that water for reuse, reducing the need for additional fresh water to frack more wells. The final 10 percent is a biodegradable solid that can be safely put into active landfills.

“Our method of production eliminates spills and any contamination,” said the elder Schachter. “We dedicate everything we do to the remediation and cleansing of frack-water.”

The 15-foot HydroPod uses a combination of electrical charges and ozone gas injections to produce water that is capable of reuse in the drilling process. The HydroPod can be operated by a single technician, and also comes with a small laboratory to help analyze the water on-site.

One HydroPod unit is capable of recycling more than 125,000 gallons of frack-water per day – resulting in billions of gallons of water that can be reused yearly. That also means less fresh water consumption, which is good news for the South and Southwestern parts of the United States, where threats of drought are ongoing.

“The recycling of frack-water is a major consideration for the future of the oil industry,” said Schachter.

As a result, Petro-Cycle Solutions has seen steady growth over the last three years. The company posted revenue of just under $1 million in 2013, and then grew that by 50 percent last year. Petro-Cycle Solutions put eight systems out in the marketplace in 2014, and is looking to double that number in 2015.

With the price of oil below levels seen in recent years, and drilling slowing down, Petro-Cycle Solutions is looking at new ways to make its water-remediation system even more flexible – using existing technologies to recycle frack-water for agricultural use and farming.

“Sometimes being an industry outsider can give you a fresh perspective,” said Steven Schachter. “We’re just building systems to solve problems.” •

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