“Back in 1990, no one knew what Ecotech meant. We got called Ekka-tech all the time.”

This is Alan Miller, President of Ecotechnology, Ltd. talking. He first joined Ecotech (short for ecological technologies) in 1990. “You know who the biggest, public green supporter was at the time? McDonald’s. They about changed the packaging industry overnight when they went with non-CFC cups and boxes.”

Granted, he admits, McDonald’s were forced into the change, as the grassroots McToxics campaign pressured them to move away from chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) styrofoam packaging to what they use today. Back when the ozone layer was a common buzzword, CFCs were criticized for ozone depletion, so  when a national powerhouse like McDonald’s made the switch, other fast food companies soon followed.

“We believed that green was going to be huge. For the longest time, it seemed that green small businesses had no chance, but we thought this was changing — that ecological and economical did not have to be opposed anymore. So we went with Ecotechnology.”

Little did Ecotechnology, Ltd. know that the ecotech term was about to become popular in the 5-10 years following. “Ecotech didn’t mean anything to most people back then; same as green.” These days, Ecotech is tied to institutions and a number of green technologies. The terms “ecotech” and “green” still have little meaning today, although this is more due to the fact that businesses can shape them to mean whatever they want.

An Ecotech System on site

“Systems” was later added to the name to set Ecotechnology, Ltd. apart from all the other Ecotechs. Swimming against the tide in Google searches, the Ecotech system specializes in the cost-effective, nonthermal drying of biosolids (and a myriad of granular materials) by adding a low-grade heat (150 degrees F). These Ecotech systems can also move  and sort materials — soda ash, potash, crumb rubber, copper fines, sugar beets, etc. — with minimal degradation and pipe wear. The applications for moving potash are the number one selling application for the Ecotech system.

Using the patented EcoVeyor, the Ecotech system conveys over long-distances and through significant (even vertical) changes in elevation, no moving parts for minimal maintenance, positive environmental effects through its closed-loop design, and boosted value from lower product attrition and lower line wear for longer pipe life.

Maybe in another twenty years, the ecotech term will be unpopular again. Ecotechnology, Ltd. hopes to still sell systems then.

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Colin McKay Miller is the Marketing Manager for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) and safe movement of materials (including potash and soda ash).

So this means skinny people are less wasteful? Something like that, right?

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Colin McKay Miller is the Marketing Manager for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) 

Last time we spoke about the patented Ecotech system, we talked about biosolids—a polarizing treatment process that blew up the comments section. This time, we’re addressing how the Ecotech system non-thermally dries material—yes, including biosolids (sorry, comments section, you’re going to get mauled by search term responses again)—at a rate the fraction of the cost of alternate methods.

That non-thermal drying part is pretty important, as thermal drying (basically adding a lot of heat along with a lot of associated energy costs) is incredibly expensive. For you engineering types, look at the latent heat of vaporization to see just how much energy is needed to dry water — we’re talking $250 a dry ton expensive. The standard non-thermal drying techniques include belt presses or centrifuges (basically big tanks with turbines to spin the material), co-composting and chemicals. Although they are often cheaper than thermal drying techniques—$85 to $180 a dry ton—they are often slower, leaving options that are either too expensive or too slow to be viable.

With this is mind, Ecotech brought the patented EcoVeyor drying system to market, combining just enough heat and motion to be highly efficient and cost-effective. Put it this way: Combining heat and motion works in your household (i.e. your clothes dryer)—it makes sense that the basic principle applies in larger, industrial applications. However, instead of spinning a whole chamber with moving parts that wear out, the EcoVeyor chamber sets up a stable, spiraling flow that moves and sorts materials—soda ash, potash, crumb rubber, copper fines, sugar beets, etc.—with minimal degradation and pipe wear. Since this type of spiraling flow is found all throughout nature, it’s no surprise that material continues to travel stably in this tornado-like flow.

Here’s the layout of a typical Ecotech system (click for a larger picture of those teeny labels):

Using the patented EcoVeyor, the Ecotech system has no moving parts for minimal maintenance, positive environmental effects through its closed-loop design, the ability to convey over long-distances and through significant (even vertical) changes in elevation, and boosted value from lower product attrition and lower line wear for longer pipe life.

Combining the EcoVeyor’s flow with a low-grade heat—150-degrees F: the type of heat usually easily available on-site of industrial applications—sheers off large amounts of moisture that atomizes in the pipe. Due to the combination of efficient flow and just enough heat, surface moisture is removed at a rapid rate for about $1 a ton. Although this EcoVeyor isn’t a complete drying solution, in removing up to 30 points of moisture (when starting with 25% solids), it’s a cost-effective intermediary step to any industrial drying application.

*     *     *

Colin McKay Miller is the Marketing Manager for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) and safe movement of materials (including potash and soda ash).

That beer and chocolate better be really good…

*     *     *

Colin McKay Miller is the Marketing Manager for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) 

Here are a few of the more novel suggestions (even if the first one is more of a fact):

#20: If the label on your food has more than 3 ingredients, the rest is chemicals and fillers.

#29: Save a small bundle of old newspapers for window cleaning. Streak free, and better than wasting paper towels.

#31: Tablespoon or two of used coffee on house plants periodically; gives them a small boost, helps loosen compacted soil when it’s mixed in.

Come by and add your own suggestions. Maybe I’ll convince someone to dress up like Captain Planet.

*     *     *

Colin McKay Miller is the Marketing Manager for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) 

Yeah, I said it in the title, but I’ll say it again: The updated Vortex Tools site is live!

Vortex Tools has redone its site to give oil and gas engineers easier access to Technical Reports (White Papers, case studies, and installation instructions) and Media (promotional materials and published articles).

In addition to featuring key surface and downhole applications, the Vortex site now features an updated list of the available Vortex tools, including:

The surface flowback (SX-FB) tool:  A large, East Texas independent (in conjunction with a leading flowback and well testing company) placed a Vortex SX-FB tool between the high-pressure separator and heater-treater and was able to reduce the production lost to the pit by one day, generating an additional $500,000 in previously “lost” production and significantly reduced their emissions impact.

The wireline retrievable (DX-WR) tool for increased gas storage recovery: With the DX-WR tool, underground gas storage companies are able to recover more of the gas stored in caverns, thereby profiting more in winter from the gas (usually) stored during the summer. Prior to the Vortex DX-WR tools, in the test region, 6% of the gas stored could never be recovered (the maximum recovery rate in this set of caverns was only 92%). After the DX-WRs were installed, in some cases, over 100% of the prior year injected gas was recovered.

For all this and more, please visit the new VortexTools.com

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Colin McKay Miller is the Marketing Manager for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) 

Vortex Tools explores why the oil and gas industry believes fracking does not contaminate groundwater, and why, even when they are to blame (in this case of contamination or otherwise), they won’t take responsibility until they’re forced to do so.

With the potential changes coming to hydraulic fracturing in 2012, we’ve spent a number of blogs recently focusing on the controversial practice.

To recap here are the two opposing stances:

1) The oil and gas industry believes that the science behind fracking is sound, and when enacted properly, no groundwater contamination occurs, as the fracking veins don’t spread anywhere near water. They also contend that many of the pollutants blamed on fracking chemicals are actually naturally occurring.

2) Environmentalists contend that fracking chemicals are responsible for groundwater contamination, and that given the way water naturally flows to the path of least resistance, the veins created by the force of fracking not only provide routes for contamination, but fundamentally damage the rock structure, causing even more problems (some say earthquakes).

While the environmentalist stance is (mostly) easy to understand, it seems as though the pro-fracking stance needs more of an explanation to not just seem like some cover story to avert blame (especially as oil and gas companies are already branded as eco-villains).

When I checked in with an operator on the fracking controversy, he wrote the following:

Everywhere I know of where true science has been applied, it has been found to be of no effect. We had a water well on the ranch in Southeastern Colorado that made enough methane to run an industrial engine, and no well had been drilled for 15 miles in any direction.  You don’t have to be in the O & G business very long until a farmer or rancher will tell you, “You need to lease my land.  I know there is oil and gas here because I get it from my water well.”  But you drill a well and they say, “you contaminated my water well, pay up.”

Oil and gas migrate thru a thousand feet of “impermeable sediments” over hundreds of thousands of years, not decades. It can happen thru faulty cementing of the casing or casing failures, but, if it occurs during fracking, you know instantly.  You can run a temperature survey after a frac or put a small radioactive tag in the proppant and see exactly where it went.  

Fracture generation generally is out and down, with some up, due to the forces of gravity.  The “up’ stops when a clay or shale bed of relatively small thickness is reached.  To have 100′ of total fracture height takes a tremendous amount of horsepower and an extremely brittle, homogeneous formation.

Oil and gas entities are in the business of trying to generate profits for their shareholders, not paying out huge sums for contaminated water wells, whether the damage is insured or not.  Therefore, fracture height, surrounding sediment beds and cement and casing integrity are always taken into account in the frac design. 

This operator would admit. along with most oil and gas workers, that when mistakes are made, they are costly (environmentally, financially, time wise). So even though the oil and gas industry can argue the validity of the science and the natural occurrence of deemed pollutants, mistakes aren’t about good science or what’s naturally occurring. Mistakes are when things went wrong and the companies at fault should be held responsible.

That said, with the debate about what would have happened naturally (without oil and gas companies’ intervention) and the accepted large cost of faulty business practice, no company is going to take the burden when the proof of fault is — despite what either side would say  — undetermined. By the end of 2012, however, that debate may be over.

*     *     *

Colin McKay Miller is the Marketing Manager for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) 

Oh, there he is. He's much easier to find as a giant head in the middle of the page.

Waldo. Carmen Sandiego. That leprechaun with my pot of gold. A neutral definition of fracking.

What do these things have in common? That’s right, they’re hard to find, and the people who’ve found them aren’t sharing on the internet. Instead, you get a lot of opinion staplegunned to the facts (especially with that leprechaun — why is he so greedy?).

A couple of weeks back, we talked about the potential changes coming to fracking in 2012, and while the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is set to finish their official report by the end of January — as opposed to quipping what people figured they’d find anyway: that hydraulic fracturing is responsible for groundwater contamination (followed by a predictable rebuttal from the oil and gas industry) —  it’s hard to find a neutral definition of what the process is.

Let’s look at what we get instead:

Save the intense battle music, this video doesn’t start half bad. Early on, there are couple of key phrases that indicate the narrator’s bias — “toxic products” (0:22), “highly damaging” (0:34) — but by the second half of the video, I can’t be bothered to keep track, so from 1:13 on, hello, blunt anti-fracking opinion.

(Not that the creators were trying to hide their bias, mind you.)

Meanwhile, some companies in the oil and gas industry  want to pretend as though there’s no controversy at all:

Here we get snazzy graphics and a couple of comments to subtlety defend against the accusations lobbed their way:

• Fracking merely exploiting “natural zones of weakness” and being contained “well below the ground” (i.e. groundwater): 1:31-1:50.
• Recycling/disposing of fracking liquids “according to state and federal regulations” at 3:25-3:35.

(Could’ve done with some battle music…)

Inevitably, I’m not labeling these biases as good or bad; I’m just pointing out what’s there. Except you, leprechaun with the pot of gold, hurry up already. I’ve got bills to pay.

*     *     *

Colin McKay Miller is the Marketing Manager for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) 

With President Obama rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline project, let’s take a look at how we got here:

For years, TransCanada Corp. has tried to get the Keystone XL pipeline built. Since the proposed 1,980-mile-long pipeline would move heavy Canadian crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands through Nebraska and to the U.S. Gulf Coast, this required a permit from the State Department (to cross the U.S.-Canada border). In November 2011, President Obama delayed his final decision until after the 2012 election, citing the need for more review.

Okay, let’s hit the pause button here: If it isn’t obvious, President Obama’s main reason for delaying making a decision until after his reelection year was (mostly) to avoid alienating voters. This isn’t a tactic specific to any politician or party; it’s standard fare with any hot-button issue where you’re going to lose voters no matter what you do (especially in this case where the unions are for the project and environmentalists are opposed — splitting two key Democratic voting groups). Though I understand the tactic, it’s one more reminder that the skeleton of political integrity has long since been pecked clean by vultures.

Protests against the Keystone XL Pipeline

Thus proponents of the pipeline (with their supporters in a Republican-led Congress) forced President Obama to make a decision via GOP provisions in December’s payroll tax cut extension deal. That decision was made today, and, as expected, President Obama rejected the pipeline deal based on the “arbitrary” deadline, not the merits of the project itself. It’s that annoying circular logic where the President cites being forced to decide too fast as the reason for the rejection and Congress cites his inability to decide as the reason for forcing his hand. In the end, the average voter just sees the circular nature of politicians having their heads bent around and shoved up you-know-where.

Both sides released statements where they could score points: House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, “President Obama is destroying tens of thousands of American jobs and shipping American energy security to the Chinese. (He’s) selling out American jobs for politics.” TransCanada Corp predicted 13,000 jobs from constructing the estimated $13 billion pipeline, 7,000 manufacturing jobs and “the 118,000 spin-off jobs Keystone XL will create through increased business for local goods and service providers.” Since the pipeline would go through Nebraska, naturally a large chunk of those jobs would benefit that state.

(Score one point for job growth in a poor economy.)

President Obama said, “In the months ahead, we will continue to look for new ways to partner with the oil and gas industry to increase our energy security – including the potential development of an oil pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf of Mexico – even as we set higher efficiency standards for cars and trucks and invest in alternatives like biofuels and natural gas. And we will do so in a way that benefits American workers and businesses without risking the health and safety of the American people and the environment.” One of the main concerns with the Keystone XL project is how to avoid the scenic and sensitive Sand Hills area.

(Score one point for environmentalism while maintaining the potential for job growth.)

Unlike Republicans backing the oil and gas industry and Democrats backing environmentalists, there are actually some things that are debatable in this project:

• Since it’s presently difficult to transport, Canadian crude is, on average $25/barrel less than most oil in U.S. markets. If you increase the ease of its availability and transportation via a pipeline, the value of Canadian crude oil could easily go up by $3/barrel, bringing up the price of gasoline by 7 cents/gallon. Meanwhile, others argue that the overall increased availability will benefit the U.S.
• Many label the Keystone XL pipeline as an export line (for Europe and Latin America), arguing this Canadian crude oil doesn’t benefit the U.S. (and its dependency on foreign oil) nearly as much as it should.
• When you’re talking about projected jobs and costs, both of those numbers are highly subject to change (especially those 118,000 spin-off jobs that make up the meat of the job growth).
• Environmental impact is tough to predict, but another 500,000 barrels/day chugging down the landscape will continue to be sternly opposed by environmentalists.

Alas, these issues are buried beneath all the minutiae of what will affect the  next election.

So what’s changed then? Nothing really. Oil stocks and Canadian crude values will likely take a hit in the coming days, both sides will continue to try to find ways to bring up the issue in the next election cycle, and the decision will inevitably be made based on the party in charge and the voting groups they appease. Sounds like every political issue ever.

*     *     *

Colin McKay Miller is the Marketing Manager for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) 

*     *     *

Colin McKay Miller is the Marketing Manager for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.)