OriginClear to test water treatment solution at Sinopec shale gas site in Chongqing, China
OriginClear, a provider of water treatment solutions, announced its partnership with a regional organization in the Chinese province of Shandong for remediation of a shale gas site operated by the government-owned Sinopec Group. The two- to three-week pilot at Sinopec’s FuLing shale gas site in Chongqing, a major city in Southwest China, is intended to qualify OriginClear’s Electro Water Separation (EWS) technology for integration into a multistage process that’s designed to process hydraulic fracturing and flowback water for onsite reuse.
OriginClear signed a sales license agreement with Shandong Tong Heng Environmental Technologies (SDTH) on 24 March in DongYing, the capital city of Shandong Province where SDTH is headquartered. The agreement was signed at a ceremony hosted by the Shandong Province local government, represented by Li Dongzhi, Director of the Dongying Economic & Technological Development Zone.
“This opportunity to demonstrate our success at a site operated by a Top Three global oil and gas company will validate our technology and potential to disrupt the Chinese market,” “JL” Kindler, President of the OriginClear Technologies Division, said. “We intend to scale up our operations in China, with the support and sponsorship of provincial governments.”
The pilot test will run for approximately two to three weeks. During this time, the EWS technology will remove total petroleum hydrocarbons and suspended solids from the wastewater, prior to a reverse osmosis treatment. Following confirmation of EWS performance and successful removal of contaminants, the water will be deemed suitable for reuse on this site’s hydraulic fracturing process.
According to the United Nations, despite having a population of 1.35 billion – 21% of the world’s population – China only has 7% of the world’s freshwater supplies. One large contributing factor is China’s rapid economic growth, fueled by heavy water consumption for production processes. Furthermore, considering 60% of the country’s underground water is polluted, the country’s pollution problems also contribute to the freshwater supply shortage. Capital expenditure on industrial water and wastewater treatment in China is set to increase by nearly 25% over the next five years, reaching $6.8 billion in 2020.
