Oil Recovery Services Other MST Services

Oil Shale and Tar Sand Production and Refining

Much of the science that makes MST so ideally suited to treating petroleum-based emulsions also apply to oil shale and tar sands emulsions. MST should be a useful technology in making these energy sources more cost effective. Specific MST applications will be similar to some used with petroleum, and some will be unique.

Many of the processes used to generate usable oil from oil shale and tar sands are different or in addition to processes used in the conventional petroleum industry. The increased use of water and greater presence of solids provide a greater opportunity for MST.

Conditions for development of these North American energy supplies seem favorable given the high price and supply issues related to petroleum, and the likelihood of continued demand growth in Asia and Africa.

Remediation of Crude Oil Wastes

While relatively few remediation projects may be suited to clean-up by MST alone, MST has been shown to improve the performance of a range of conventional separations technologies:

• Centrifuges
• Tank settling
• Hydrocyclones

It is likely MST can be exploited to increase remediation rates where conventional systems are employed, resulting in faster clean-ups at lower cost.

While many thousands of remediation projects have either been completed or are underway worldwide, many decades of work remain to eliminate the problems created over the last century.

Marine Waste Reduction

IPRC has preliminary engineering designs for a reduced-size Marine MST (MMST) that could be placed on board ships for point of origin treatment.

Generation of shipboard bilge, waste and stringent environmental laws are making it desirable for the marine industry to find new ways to reduce the amount of wastes offloaded for treatment.

Conventional MST could be located in ports to pretreat offloaded wastes to reduce the volumes shipped to reclaimers. Initial tests suggest volume reductions of 2/3 are possible.

Petrochemicals

MST has potential to enhance wastewater and tank farm performance, and may also find other site-specific applications. Many petrochemical plants encounter emulsions similar to those found in refining, as well as unique and even harder to treat emulsions.