As the popularity of hydraulic fracturing continues to strain available water supplies, a new technology may be the key to recycling produced water in an affordable way.

There are a number of point level approaches to measuring the interface between water and oil for water dump control in the oil and gas industry. However, each has disadvantages — manual methods introduce human error, conductivity switches are rendered inaccurate by buildup, and float switches are susceptible to wear and tear. This white paper introduces capacitance level switches as an accurate and reliable alternative for water/oil interface detection.

For an open-pit taconite mining operation in Minnesota, high pH groundwater required round-the-clock pumping to comply with discharge permit limits. After management installed a control system to neutralize the pH, the treated water leaving the site now meets permit limits. Read this case study to learn more about the installed system and results.

Everyone is familiar with the water cut statistics: three to seven barrels of produced water emerge from the ground per barrel of oil. This oft-cited statistic is useful to appreciate the scale of the volumes of water produced in the Permian Basin. However, it does not tell the whole story.

Until recently, it was difficult to find an optimal meter for the harsh conditions that can occur during water transfer in oil and gas applications. The good news is that an effective, accurate, and rugged meter is emerging as an alternative.

Major multinational food and drink processing company requested support to validate the performance of existing electromagnetic flow meters, that were failure-prone, in their water treatment plants. 

The Plant’s wastewater treatment facility uses four, covered anaerobic lagoons to manage BOD, pretreating wastewater prior to sending the effluent to a pumping station which directs the wastewater into the municipal collection system for final treatment at the City’s wastewater treatment plant. Read more to learn how the company used hydrogen peroxide and a catalyst to maintain an aerobic environment but was unable to adequately mitigate the odor from the facility’s wastewater.

Levels of phosphorus, a chemical element that promotes organic growth, must be controlled in wastewater coming from beverage, food and dairy processing plants. Failure to control phosphorus accurately has a negative impact on water quality and can lead to large fines.

Managing the treatment of wastewater — especially industry-generated wastewater that can elevate dissolved oxygen (DO) demands far beyond those of municipal/residential applications — is hard enough. Trying to do so during upset conditions is enough to put any water treatment professional on edge. Here are several preventive and remedial options to keep in mind before or after DO readings go haywire.

A bacon processing plant in the Midwest was overloaded by more than 50%. Even though the system continued to maintain compliance, the plant proactively decided to expand its wastewater treatment facility to ensure they met their growing demand and maintained their standing as exemplary corporate citizens and environmental stewards.

This article is the first of two in a Women’s History Month series that showcases a handful of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL's) outstanding women researchers in water power.

2015 proved to be another weird weather year around the country, especially for Texas. 80 degrees and dry in Austin on Christmas Day, spring wildflowers in bloom, and kids playing outside in shorts — a surprise ending to a wild ride of drought followed by devastating floods followed by drought and then more floods.

Using earth-friendly energy and conserving water supports the fight against climate change and preserves our freshwater reserves.

With the meltdown of FTX and the price of Bitcoin sinking to a quarter of its high water mark of over $64,000 in value (now maybe two bit Bitcoin?), I decided to resurrect my 2018 post Is Cryptocurrency Going Down the Drain?...

You probably have some sort of insurance – for your healthcare, car, house, or apartment. Acting on climate change is also like insurance. It is all about managing the risks.

As the popularity of hydraulic fracturing continues to strain available water supplies, a new technology may be the key to recycling produced water in an affordable way.

This article is the second in a series on industrial water treatment focusing on inorganic contaminants.

‘Sewer mining’ may sound like a search for mistakenly flushed and washed-away valuables, but it’s actually a sophisticated, sustainable strategy for combating water scarcity.

In the recent decades, the market for the products of the industrial process industries has changed greatly. The manufacture of mass products has shifted to locations where raw materials are available economically. Competitive pressures have forced a swing to specialization as well as to an ability to adapt to customers desires. The systems are designed so that the economic data, such as raw material properties, raw material costs, batch sizes, are quickly integrated into the processes. An important consideration is the assurance and improvement of product quality.

This article is the first of two in a Women’s History Month series that showcases a handful of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL's) outstanding women researchers in water power.

While every potable water treatment process requires a balance of chemistry and biology to deliver safe, clean drinking water, added concerns from upstream stormwater or agricultural runoff only make the job that much more difficult. How can we do a better job of safeguarding water treatment plant (WTP) operations while protecting the health of water utility customers against threats of upstream nonpoint source (NPS) pollution?

A manufacturer of railcar bearings, wheels, and axles needed a wastewater system upgrade to treat for oil, grease, suspended solids, and dissolved metals in a mix of process water and storm water runoff. The existing wastewater treatment system in place at the facility consisted of a small equalization tank, traditional clarifier and sand filter. 

Water is essential to life. And it is a very precious commodity in Israel, home to 9 million people living in a rocky desert that receives about 10 inches of rain a year. By comparison, Denver, considered semi-arid, gets about 15 inches of rain a year, which is about a fourth of the precipitation a tropical city such as Miami receives.

In a closed-loop system, every aspect of the environment must be carefully controlled—dissolved oxygen, ammonia, pH, turbidity, and other water quality parameters are continuously monitored. Fluorometers play a crucial role in ensuring the health of both the water and the fish within these systems.

Known for the “best potatoes in the world,” the state of Idaho generates approximately $4 billion in annual agricultural revenue (according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2017).