Aquatech Readies New Shale Gas Water Treatment Solution
Washington PA Observer
Reporter
4 December 2010
By Michael Bradwell, Business editor
mbradwell@observer-reporter.com
For years, Canonsburg-based Aquatech International has built its
reputation by helping companies and governments around the world to
develop technological solutions to treating industrial wastewater,
converting saltwater into drinking water and reducing water use in a
variety of industrial settings.
The homegrown company is the recipient of numerous awards from the
water treatment industry to the U.S. Import-Export Bank and
Pennsylvania for its role as an exporter of its products and services.
Next month, Aquatech, headquartered on Four Coins Drive, will begin
providing solutions to the Marcellus Shale industry, delivering its
longtime global experience and technological know-how in its own
backyard.
On Friday, Aquatech President and Chief Executive Officer Venkee Sharma
told about 100 members of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce
that his company can help to drastically reduce the amount of water
being hauled to and from drilling pads by effectively treating it for
reuse on-site.
Following the breakfast meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn in
Southpointe, he said Aquatech will deliver its first mobile wastewater
pre-treatment plant to a Bentleyville-area natural gas drilling site in
January.
During a 40-minute presentation on Aquatech, Sharma included a
description of what his company envisions as a "hub-and-spoke" design
of mobile water treatment plants that will reduce total dissolved
solids, brine and other contaminants produced by the introduction of
water and chemicals to frack or fracture the shale strata to release
the natural gas.
"By taking solutions to the site, we can reduce wastewater by 80
percent and treat as much water on the site as possible," Sharma said.
He added that the portable on-site plants can reduce water-hauling
traffic from 200 to 40 truckloads per well site, saving wear and tear
on local roads in the process.
While acknowledging that many drilling companies in the Marcellus
previously worked in the Barnett Shale of Texas, where disposal wells
for wastewater are abundant, Sharma said they must look for other
environmentally sound solutions for recycling wastewater here.
"Each of the companies have different views on how they recycle and how
much (water) they treat," he said, expressing confidence that his
company's technology will be widely adopted.
"There has not been a good partnership between government and industry"
in seeking solutions, he added, stating that he expects that to improve.
According to Sharma, the mobile plants "fit into the cost structure of
what drilling companies already spend on wastewater treatment" while
providing a more environmentally sound approach in the process.
He said the mobile units will be produced at Aquatech's Canonsburg
facility.
Sharma said Aquatech, which created a Marcellus Shale division a few
years ago and in the spring completed an expansion at Speers Industrial
Park for its product and service areas, is hiring in both areas, but
acknowledged that it's difficult to find qualified employees,
particularly in the engineering area.