Gas Exploration Invert Mud Solidification
Case Study
Challenge
Very remote site with 900 tonnes of invert liquid drilling waste in need of disposal. The site was many hours from the nearest liquid waste disposal site and only accessible by winter roads. Disposal options were very costly.
Solution
MetaFLO licensee KBL Environmental provided turnkey solution to process the liquids resulting in a stackable, easy to ship solid while adding a very low dosage of MetaFLO’s newly developed organics solidification reagent. These ‘invert muds’ have historically required costly transportation and disposal as a liquid slurry by vacuum truck and bulking.
Result
KBL successfully treated these oil-based drill cuttings with less than 3% (by weight) eliminating the need for liquid waste treatment. The process throughput capacity was 60 MT/hour and lead to a savings of greater than 30% over historical methods of treatment.
Additionally, this innovative invert mud solidification solution reduced the number of truck hours by approximately 60%. This solution is believed to have prevented 80,000 pounds of CO2 emissions.
KBL also reduced risk by transporting less material in larger dump trucks – it was far less risky than transporting liquids in vacuum tankers to a distant liquid waste treatment facility.
Owner: Vale Canada Ltd.
Contractor: Tervita Corp.
Distributor: Di-Corp
Vale owns and operates a mining site in Northern Ontario, Canada. Through their mining and refining activities they produce a sludge waste by-product. The clients were in need of an efficient excavation and transportation solution to get this sludge to their off-site landfill.
End of September 2018 - Mid October 2018
During the bidding process, MetaFLO was engaged to provide an optimal blend and dosage rate to achieve the solids criteria required for excavation and transportation of the sludge. Using analytical data, MetaFLO estimated a dosage rate of 1.1% by weight (based on a high moisture content). Large mixing bins were recommended for increased surface contact and efficiency during the bucket mixing process. No sample was available at this time.
Tervita Corporation utilized MetaFLO reagent to solidify approximately 4,000 m3 of sludge. Two 35m3 bins were staged on site and were loaded with a composite of “heavier” and “lighter” sludges. The originally estimated dosage rate was accurate as actual treatment averaged approximately 30lbs of MetaFLO MF006 reagent per m3 of sludge. All material was safely shipped to Vale’s off-site landfill. The job was completed on time.