About the author:
Sara Myers is associate editor of iWWD. Myers can be reached at [email protected].
Recently, I wrote on our website about Encore Green Environmental, a Wyoming firm that pairs produced water from oil and gas companies with agriculture customers. General Manager Marvin Nash created the Conservation-By-Design method, which cleans water in proximity to an oil well and then applies it to the surrounding area for grassland and vegetation growth.
The method uses software to track the water to its origin to see how many wells are on each section of land and how much water and oil each well can produce, according to The Midland Reporter-Telegram (MRT), a daily newspaper in Midland, Texas.
The firm is partnering with Cody Wilson Farms to add a different element to the project by incorporating concentrated solar power to turn the flow of water into steam to generate electricity in a turbine. Revenue will be used for electricity and water, which primarily will be used for hydraulic fracturing at oil refineries. The enriched soil, Nash said, produces greater vegetation, which removes carbon from the air through photosynthesis as well.
With fracking being a huge money maker in the industry, this partnership makes sense and also has positive impacts on other sectors. The more water reused and saved, the more benefits for not just the oil companies, but also the environment and neighboring communities.
In other industrial news, a new manufacturing facility—Pietro Fiorentini—was built on scarred mining land. This Italian-based company produces pressure regulators, valves and metering systems for the natural gas and oil industries. It is great to see another use for old, scarred sites like these, particularly when they relate to the industry. And to see companies taking the initiative to repurpose those plots also is encouraging for the U.S. EPA program aimed at reusing these sites.