True confession: as a kid, I was enthralled with what would one day become known as off the grid / green / renewable energy. (Also true, I was a bit of a nerdy kid.)

When most kids spent their money on hand-held video games like Coleco’s Electronic Quarterback, I went to electronic surplus and science stores, picking up kits detailing how to construct a house into a hill that stayed cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and used little to no electricity.

The house never got built, but the fascination with sustainable, free energy remained.

Winning a science fair project at one point—I can’t remember what for—my prize was a solar-powered transistor radio. It got only AM signals, and since there was no speaker, you had to listen through a single earphone. It wasn’t fancy, but the radio, with its small round solar panel, served as a symbol of what was possible.

Typically for the times, my childhood radio’s greatest asset, its ability to use solar power, was hampered by two things. First, it needed direct sunlight to work. The moment the sun disappeared behind the clouds, the music faded too. Second, there was no rechargeable battery to store power. No sun, no fun.

As with geothermal, hydro-electric, wind, and other clean sources of energy, utilization of solar power keeps improving. Throughout history, the sun’s rays have been harnessed for purposes good and bad. It’s believed that in the 7^th century B.C., mankind learned to start fires using early magnifying glasses. Centuries later, Greeks and Romans created ‘burning mirrors’ which lighted torches used in religious rituals.

One of the most unusual and destructive uses of sunlight is attributed to preeminent Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes (287-212 B.C.). Known today to students for his works in arithmetic, mechanics, and plane and solid geometry, he’s said to have devised one of the nastiest—and most creative—ways to use solar power. According to legend, before the siege of Syracuse, Archimedes fashioned an enormous round mirror from glass or bronze, surrounded by an array of smaller mirrors. Known as the Archimedes Death Ray, it directed and concentrated rays of the sun and set a Roman fleet ablaze around 213 B.C.

For decades, solar and wind power faced hurdles—and frequently, mockery—over two issues. First, what good is solar or wind when it is cloudy or windless, and second, how do you contain and preserve the energy generated on those good days when the sun beams and the wind blows? The solution arrived in 1954, when Bell Telephone Laboratories released the Bell System Solar Battery.

An early Bell Telephone promotion was honest about the battery and its limitations.

“There is still much to be done before the batteries’ possibilities, in telephony and for other uses, are fully developed,” said the ad. “But a good and pioneering start has been made. The progress so far is like the opening of a door through which we can glimpse exciting new things for the future. Great benefits for telephone users and for all mankind may come from this forward step in putting the energy of the sun to practical use.”

A few years before the creation of the world’s first solar battery, it was discovered that free electrons were produced when sunlight struck wafers of silicon. Further experiments showed that these free electrons could be transformed into electrical current in the first practical silicon solar cells.

Over a century earlier, others had been experimenting with primitive solar cells, including French physicist Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel in 1839, English engineer Willoughby Smith in 1873, and American inventor Charles Fritts who, in 1883, created the first selenium solar cells.

As pioneering as these innovations were, Fritts’ solar cells were only one percent efficient at converting sunlight to electricity. Decades later, even the Bell solar battery was able to convert only six percent of sunlight into useful energy.

For years, scientists were challenged with making solar cells more efficient and batteries longer-lasting, lighter, and less costly. Researchers and physicists created varieties of batteries including lead-acid, alkaline, and nickel-metal hydride. Also known as ‘wet cell,’ lead-acid batteries were one of the first used for solar energy storage—and are still the most common—because they have a low cost per amp-hour.

Although technology keeps improving, lead-acid batteries require maintenance including cleaning, water, and equalizing, and must be carefully handled. Carelessness can cause explosions, and the electrolyte, being an acid, can harm people, animals, and the environment.

The storage of energy derived from the sun and wind keeps improving, and batteries are a big piece of the puzzle. Although inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk is best known today for Tesla electric vehicles, advanced rockets and spacecraft, his team at Tesla, Inc. created the ground-breaking Powerwall storage-battery system.

Before the 2015 release of Powerwall, engineers at Tesla’s Giga Nevada (a facility dedicated to manufacturing lithium-ion batteries) were experimenting with other energy storage batteries, including the Tesla Powerpack for industrial customers. Intended for business use and for smaller power-utility projects, the Powerpack was first installed a decade ago. Never one to limit its market reach, Musk and his company later pioneered the Tesla Megapack, capable of storing up to three megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity for the grid.

Although these devices were developed to meet different needs, the intention behind all three was the same: to store energy generated from solar power, wind, and even time-of-use (TOU) electricity from cheaper, off-peak hours, by means of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.

For home users, the Powerwall also serves to provide back-up electricity during storms and other events that might bring down utilities. Charged by solar energy during the day, the Powerwall can also pull extra power from the utility grid as needed. Energy accumulated during the day is stored, and then used at night for clean, renewable energy.

Inspiring many imitators since its 2015 release, the Tesla Powerwall may comprise up to 10 units, including a combination of older versions and the Powerwall+.

With a worldwide push to reduce carbon emissions and fossil fuel use to a lower, defined level by 2030, and to each Net Zero emissions by 2050, renewable energy including solar and wind will play an even bigger role in meeting future power needs for everything from household appliances to electric vehicles.

Massive solar farms, such as those in Texas—today a leader in America’s solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation—and an increase in onshore and offshore wind projects globally will see more of our energy requirements met by clean, renewable sources.

One recent project, the Florida Power and Light Company’s FPL Manatee Energy Storage Center is the world’s biggest solar-powered battery storage facility. The project, in Juno Beach, consists of 132 huge battery storage containers, each weighing about 38 tons (34,473 kg). With an output of 409 MW and 900 MWh of capacity, the Center can power the equivalent of 329,000 homes for over two hours, “and enable customers to enjoy the benefits of solar even when the sun is not shining.”

To be sure, renewable energy storage has come a long way since the Bell System Solar Battery of the 1950s and will be vital in powering the future of our planet.

The post A New Grid Throws New Light on our World<p class="company">Renewable Energy Storage</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

For those mining operations in remote sites, off-the-grid power systems that are both efficient and secure are essential, particularly for operations without easy access to a power grid.

Other power systems will need to be utilized on-site such as diesel-fueled power generators serving as a local micro-grid for both prime and standby power. These diesel generators must also prove themselves effective and reliable in all prevailing conditions, whether high altitudes or extremes in temperature.

Comparing underground and open pit mines, underground mines use considerably more power than the open pit kind. Underground mines require additional power for shafts, extractor fans, and dewatering pumps, for example. They will most likely require air conditioning and sites in colder climates may require some heating.

Natural gas
Natural gas-fueled generators are a reliable source of power if remote mines happen to be near a gas pipeline that can provide a tapped-in resource. These generators can provide continuous or prime power supply and are much cheaper to run than the diesel-fueled ones. They’re also considerably more environmentally friendly, with increased fuel efficiency, and have 34 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions.

As long as gas-fueled generators are well maintained they can function for longer periods, and some can run on a mixed hydrogen and natural gas blend. Natural gas generators are expected to see considerable growth in the next decade due to their much lower overall cost.

Parallel generating systems
Often remote mining site projects will require, in addition to diesel-fueled generators, parallel generating systems, switchgear, hybrid power systems, combined heat and power plants (CHP), battery storage systems, and acoustic enclosures, for example.

‘Parallel generating systems’ refers to the use of multiple power sources such as generators which synchronize the generator output for a short period prior to the transition to utility power. A closed transition is utilized to transfer loads with zero interruption of power.

This paralleling of multiple sources is good in that it increases reliability through increased redundancy. Redundancy proves more reliable than a single generator when it comes to handling critical loads; it also helps eliminate focus failure points; brings flexibility to load management; eases maintenance; and enhances serviceability through a reduced likelihood of disruption.

Hybrid power systems
Also known as renewable microgrids, hybrid power systems are typically found in remote mining sites. The power is generated by solar photovoltaic (PV) systems or wind turbines.

As noted by global energy solutions provider BWSC, this system “serves as a cost-efficient fuel saver for the reciprocating engines. The reciprocating diesel or gas engines generate power to balance the supply and demand of power in the system and provide crucial inertia for ensuring grid stability. In cases where short-term demand peaks are frequent, energy storage systems can provide sufficient energy to meet the demand.”

BWSC’s site goes on to note, “The energy storage systems can also be used to displace additional fuel and related costs when storing hours of renewable power for when the sun is not shining or the wind not blowing.”

In addition, energy storage systems can provide power regulation support, and thereby minimize the need for running engines. In some cases, storage can also substitute investments in engine capacity.”

Mohammad Sedighy, Principal Consultant, Electrotechnologies at Canadian engineering firm Hatch, told International Mining that “past attempts to incorporate renewable energy at meaningful penetration levels at these remote sites have proved challenging. Renewable power used to be expensive, and many early projects weren’t able to compete with diesel power on cost. The continuity of supply was an issue due to weather dependency and the variability of the renewable power generation itself.”

He goes on to say that “This is quickly starting to change. Hybrid power is on the cusp of making major leaps, thanks to falling costs of renewable energy, the maturity of several forms of energy storage technologies, and the advancement of smart, real-time dynamic control systems. We can now better integrate renewable energy into remote power grids through the improved performance and control of microgrids, with optimal sizing and use of energy storage.”

Combined Heat and Power plants (CHP)
Also known as cogeneration, a CHP plant provides a self-generation solution. The CHP generates sustainable electricity and thermal energy at the same time. Sustainable because heat that would normally be lost in processing can be redirected for other purposes such as steam to generate electricity or for steam chillers for cooling, for example.

According to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, “CHP is a suite of technologies that can use a variety of fuels to generate electricity or power at the point of use, allowing the heat that would normally be lost in the power generation process to be recovered to provide needed heating and/or cooling.”

The site further explains that “CHP technology can be deployed quickly, cost-effectively, and with few geographic limitations. CHP can use a variety of fuels, both fossil- and renewable-based.”

And according to an article in Science Direct, “The main advantage of CHP is the efficient gain from saving natural resources and reducing emissions into the atmosphere, because it produces both heat and electricity at the same time.”

Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)
Many mining groups want to cut their emissions and can do so by relying on energy storage systems that enable them to increase renewable power consumption. BESS is an energy storage system that can be incorporated into a mine’s microgrid. Such technology serves to level demand through the reduction of peak loading and by storing excess renewable energy generated at a mine site.

According to SAFT, a global battery and battery systems company “The BESS allows the microgrid to maximize the amount of renewable energy it uses by compensating sudden variations in the power output of solar panels and wind turbines. The system will provide ultra-fast reacting spinning reserves to help maintain grid stability, which reduces the need to have diesel generator sets running idle for this purpose.”

Mining plays an essential role in any economy and is vital for the wellbeing of any community. Mining companies are quite often leading employers in communities. Aside from the extraction process, mining affords many careers in production, management, and scientific roles which can include engineers, chemists, consultants and geologists, to name a few.

As new technologies become part of mining industry it’s important to realize that aside from supporting thousands of jobs, the mining industry is the foundation of our modern lives, a driving force in any economy.

The post Something from Nothing<p class="company">Generating Power On-Site</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Leck Waste Services has adopted market-leading technology to maintain an edge in the industry. “The integration of data and technology over the last five years has allowed us to scale the company at a rate averaging about 22 percent growth year over year, over the last three and a half years,” says President and Owner Jason Leck. Without this integration, “I don’t think we would have been able to scale the way we did. We went from one operating location to three operating locations.”

Notably, much of this expansion took place during the pandemic, when the industry was facing substantial challenges. “We’re a technologically-driven waste company, which has allowed us to make a lot of educated decisions,” Leck says of the continued success during high-pressure times.

In 2018, Leck Waste Services partnered with Soft-Pak®, a complete software solution for waste haulers, and 3rd Eye®, a leading fleet management tool, camera and monitor system, collision warning system, and data collection system. “All of those technologies tied together and really transformed how we interacted as a company, from operations and maintenance to safety and customer service,” Leck says.

“We have much better insight in looking at what we’re doing on a daily basis… and how we are delivering on all those things in the industry because of those partnerships that we invested in through Soft-Pak® and 3rd Eye®.” The increased insight and efficiency has meant that the company was able to “to generate revenue that we never could generate prior to having that technology in the truck.”

The camera system gives “a deeper insight into how we are servicing customer locations because of positive service verification with videos,” Leck explains. “Now, we have a recording and a picture of every service that is occurring… Our customer service department is able to be more proactive versus being a reactive customer service department.”

Issues related to overages, blocked accounts, and false damage claims have all been relegated to the past. “We saw we were paying for a lot of customers claiming that we were damaging property or doing things on site, and probably 95 percent of those types of claims and calls against the company have gone away since we instituted the camera system in the trucks,” Leck says.

Safety is another key area that has seen dramatic improvements through the company’s adoption of the technology. “One of the things 3rd Eye® does for us is send us alerts if the driver is doing something unsafe behind the wheel, whether it’s a hard brake, if they’re on the cell phone, not wearing their seatbelt, those types of things,” says Director of Health and Safety John Andel. “When we went live with the system we were averaging about eight of those alerts per month through the first year.”

Since that time, the drop in safety alerts has been dramatic, particularly compared to the number of employees since that has increased during the same period. Four years after the implementation of the system, the company has “basically doubled the size of our workforce, and we’re averaging one to two [safety alerts] a month,” Andel says.

Management is not the only fan of this monitoring technology—employees have welcomed it as well. “Drivers have been very receptive to it,” Andel says. “We’ve taken a very hands-on coaching approach with it, trying to build and grow talent. It’s made us safer as a company. It’s also improved our retention as a company. We don’t have the manpower issues that a lot of companies in our industry have. We’re hiring due to growth, but we don’t have the turnover.”

Leck reiterates the effectiveness of using technology as a teaching tool to support employees. “We decided that we were going to use the onboard cameras as a way to make best-in-class operator drivers. We used it, instead of as a disciplinary tool, as a way to actively coach for better driving habits. That doesn’t mean that people don’t make mistakes. But we looked at it as, if we recognize what the mistake is, how can we use that information to coach our drivers and our employees to not continue to make those kinds of mistakes and to improve what they’re doing?”

The price of insurance has become a substantial challenge in the industry and Leck Waste Services is using technology and captive insurance to reduce the burden. “It is a hard insurance market,” Leck says. “They’re seeing premiums rise 20 to 25 percent year-over-year. We’re seeing less than half of that increase with National Interstate Wastecap because we were able to drive safety as one of our core values and culture here at Leck. It really just transformed how [we operate].”

This coaching and increased safety has led to substantial cost savings for the company. “There’s a direct correlation between how we performed and money coming back,” says Leck. “At the end of the day, we could be looking at a couple hundred thousand dollars’ worth of premiums that are coming back to the company in order to allow the company to grow, and that’s all directly related to the technology that we invested in.”

In May of 2021, Leck Waste Services acquired a transfer station, the first step in meeting goals. “The main focus is going to be post-collection growth,” Leck says. “We’ve always been a collections company and the first piece of the post-collection growth strategically for the company was to acquire a transfer station.”

Currently, Leck Waste Services is in the process of modifying the newly-acquired transfer station to increase tonnage. Jumping through the hoops for permit renewal in 2024 is the current emphasis, but “ultimately, down the road, we’d like to be able to have some sort of recycling MRF facility to be able to process all of [the additional waste] that we’re expecting,” Leck says. An MRF or materials recovery facility collects and separates recyclable materials and prepares them to be sent to manufacturers that use recycled materials in their production.

The new transfer station has expanded the company’s potential for additional waste services. “Up to this point, we were mainly a solid-waste collections company, and through our acquisition that we did last year of the transfer station, we now have taken on more liquid waste hauling, septic and portable toilets, and that side of the business,” Leck says. “And I do foresee that, in the future, that would be something that we are looking to scale up in operations because it’s a lucrative business if it’s operated properly.” He predicts the potential to be “double-digit growth on that side of the business.”

Armed with the latest technology—and applying its potential to the fullest—the company is positioned for future success. Add to this, an acquisition with plenty of growth potential, as well as a strong track record as a family-owned and operated business, and it is clear that Leck Waste Services has a bright future ahead.

The post Driven by Technology<p class="company">Leck Waste Services</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The demand for quality municipal equipment continues to grow but finding reputable sales partners from which to buy these service vehicles can be difficult at times. However, buyers in the market for municipal equipment know who to call for top quality and customer service. RNOW is a family-owned-and-run industry leader in quality, heavy-duty, civil sanitation vehicles typically used by municipalities, county governments, and private contractors.

RNOW’s list of new and used vehicles available for sale or rent includes garbage, recycling, and hook-lift trucks as well as street sweepers, combination sewer-jetters, hydro excavators, and sewer inspection equipment, to name but a few. Based in West Allis, Wisconsin, it also offers customers a parts division and service center with three decades of service excellence across the Midwest, including the states of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, and beyond.

Over the years, RNOW has served happy customers from all over Wisconsin and the Midwest, including the City of Green Bay, the City of Chicago, and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, and thanks to its dedication and superb service, the company is growing fast.

“We believe this to be a relationship-based business. We consider our customers and our vendors as real partners. They’re people we rely on, and they rely on us. For us, it’s about more than commercial interaction,” says President Steve Krall. “It goes deeper than that. They become friends. We develop relationships,” he says.

“If our customers and vendors are successful, we’re going to be successful,” he continues. Krall is clear that the caliber of the company’s vendors has steered it toward its current growth and success and will continue to do so.

Part of this is that RNOW goes to great lengths to understand what its clients need from their equipment. The company then goes about pairing clients with the right vehicles for the job. Some clients need automated collection vehicles; others do not. Some may need mechanical street sweepers, while others may find that air is better for their application and region. To create these custom solutions, the company collaborates with a wide range of fabricators to ensure that its clients always have the best range of quality equipment and possibilities at their disposal.

The company’s sales service includes hauling broken equipment to its dedicated service facility for repair, and as it carries a large selection of parts, any issues are fixed quickly. Some of the many brands carried by the company’s parts division include Ampliroll, Diamondback Products, Labrie, Leach, Loadmaster, Proteus, Schwarze, Super Products, and Wittke.

The company recently introduced a new financing service where prospective buyers can apply for vehicle leases. This addition is proving to be what many of its customers need to pull them through some of their projects on budget and on schedule, a saving grace for many.

Touching on the realities and results of supply chain challenges driven by the COVID-19 crisis, Krall is humorous yet brutally realistic. “I don’t know if anybody has overcome supply chain issues,” he laughs, highlighting how the flow of parts and products remains “flipped on its head.” The struggle is real but so too is the team’s commitment to mitigating the ill effects of the pandemic on local commerce.

RNOW is a loyal member of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), whose guidelines and best practices help the company to remain on top of its game and in line with the latest industry standards and laws. “SWANA’S influence forces our manufacturers to meet the needs of what the SWANA members want, in other words, our customers and end users. The collaboration that comes out of SWANA gives our end users something to strive for,” Krall says. SWANA sets the bar, and by answering the needs that result from its guidelines RNOW answers the demands of its customers.

The company was founded by Krall’s father Dan Krall in 1980 when he set out to create a hydraulic rebuilding firm and service center. “Some of his largest customers at the time were waste haulers. My father… partnered up with a man in garbage truck sales in the late eighties who did not have a service center,” Krall says.

Dan Krall identified the market need and set to work rebuilding and servicing garbage trucks. Krall, Senior then hired garbage truck salesmen. In 1992, RNOW, Inc., standing for Refuse and Recycling Needs of Wisconsin, was born. The company split from the hydraulic rebuilding operation to focus entirely on sales and service. Steve Krall joined his father in the business in 1996, taking charge of operations and leading the firm.

When it comes to the RNOW team of sixteen, Krall could not be prouder. He is, without a shadow of a doubt, an appreciative leader. “I have to say I am truly blessed because I have had so many good people over the years. We have a very good group of people who work with us. It is awesome. Part of our growth is in the consistency of [our] people. They are all unique people with unique skills, and I want them all to be successful too,” he says.

Employees know that the health and strength of our relationships with others are what really matters. Relationships “are what define you. Your family and work life are the people. In the end, nobody is going to care about what you did. People are going to remember the times together,” says Krall.

Thirty years later, many people have devoted entire careers to RNOW and its staff turnover rate remains as low as ever. Being charitable is another priority here, as the company donates to several good causes annually. The Shrine Circus, the Special Olympics, and several veteran organizations are just a few of its beneficiaries.

The team’s commitment to its customers is second to none. Some of its most longstanding customers “have continued to work with us. Everybody in equipment knows that this stuff is going to break; if we had a failure with them, they came back anyway because we took care of the failure. That is a source of great pride,” Krall says.

Rolling ahead, RNOW’s goal is to remain known for being the company of choice in the municipal equipment market rather than the largest and paying its staff even better than it currently does. Achieving these goals will be done by keeping its size manageable and retaining its family-oriented authenticity.

For Krall, growth beyond what can be comfortably managed is illogical, especially in terms of taking care of customers and vendor relationships to the degree to which they have become accustomed. After all, there are not that many companies that have retained customers for over thirty years, and that says a lot about this team’s aim to please.

The post Sweeping the American Midwest: 30 Years in Sanitation Equipment<p class="company">RNOW, Inc.</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Blue Flame Crew was founded in the spring of 2013 when founder and President Tim Boos contacted several people in the industry whom he had worked with over the years so that they could come together professionally under a unified banner. Boos and the five men who would become his associates as Blue Flame Crew had enjoyed working with each other in the past and sought to build a company to pool their business knowledge of the gas sector.

Today, the business operates from a corporate office in Naperville, Illinois, with further field offices and centers in locations like North Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, Florida, and California. Its services range from landfill and natural gas to syngas (a synthesis gas fuel mixture) operations. When it comes to what the company specializes in and its strengths as a gas systems provider, Vice President of Construction Dan Sawyer counters with a question: “What don’t we do?”

The name of the business has come to define the operations of Blue Flame Crew, as it particularly deals with the burning of landfill gas. As such, it does practically everything there is to do with landfill gas systems with attention paid toward combustion systems like flare systems and compressors.

Its focus and qualifications have always been suited best to those with an electrical background, Sawyer adds, as the original team were mostly electricians, and the first few jobs of the Blue Flame Crew had to do with the electrical end of gas combustion and control systems. From there, the company has grown and expanded into pipework with gas and leachate collection, pumps, and controls. Its strong hand with control electricians has also allowed it to venture into telemetry systems, remote monitoring, and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, the latter of which are software systems that control industrial processes. These and other processes like sandblasting or emergency repairs make up the vast catalogue of services that Blue Flame Crew has excelled in offering for nearly a decade now.

In the past few years, the company has signed several master service agreements with major waste companies in America, which has brought in much work for the business. Although Sawyer admits that waste companies can be hard to initially enter into business with for various reasons, being able to do so successfully will afford Blue Flame Crew bigger projects and contracts with more waste companies in the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic initially affected how the company proceeds with its work, as it brought complications with the normal bidding process, as well as in dealing with project managers and clients. Sawyer chuckles that it has also led to far more Zoom meetings in the past two years. Thankfully, the company’s work was a necessity during the pandemic, as there is always a need for implementing and maintaining environmental control systems.

He also touts the hard-nosed nature of the company workforce as a consistent advantage and notes that the business very rarely had to make allowances for COVID-related pauses in work. “Our guys are very tough; they worked through stuff,” while keeping their distance in the workplace, Sawyer remembers. The company came out of the worst of the pandemic all the better.

Sawyer defines the company’s approach to safety as one that is steeped in tradition, involving employees through in-house safety training and regular refresher courses. These include the intensive Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) standards training and other Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) certifications. Employees also undergo periodic training for specific tasks that need building up, as well as online training, daily tailgate safety meetings, and even company-wide newsletters on safety topics. The company keeps an experience modification rating (EMR) of 0.85 and is firmly dedicated to keeping its workers as safe as possible.

Having had a variety of experiences working across the industry, Sawyer says that the inherent excitement of working for an emergent company like this is a reason why people in the trades should be considering it for career opportunities. There are many chances for growth, especially for a company that started with only a few positions.

Blue Flame Crew is always seeking new incentives to offer its workforce, especially ones that appeal to younger workers. One of these incentives that Sawyer mentions is tuition reimbursement, to promote continuing education among employees and even help them pay back student loans.

Similarly, the company is focused on building great relationships with its clients through maintaining its workflows, as well as through one-and-done projects. These relationships often involve a degree of brutal honesty, which Sawyer highlights as a big part of any lasting relationship, as is not taking on more than one can handle. Company higher-ups are also always open to the opinions of the workforce and those in its inner circle, extending the desire for honesty inward.

“We look to our younger project managers to throw out ideas [and] think outside the box on solutions,” he affirms. This is especially important as, according to Sawyer, it can be easy in an industry like this to be stuck in one’s ways and less open to outside views, even ones that can benefit the business. If Blue Flame Crew employees are dedicated to serving the company’s client base and put themselves forward as dependable and forthright, they will likely be a good fit for the organization and have their voices heard.

Sawyer and company management are beginning to observe supply chain problems around the industry coming into play lately, particularly lengthening lead times. As everything in the company is made up of parts, missing or delaying even one can mean a hold-up in processes. Transportation issues have also cropped up because of this and a lack of drivers and rising fuel costs, but these are challenges not at all new to the company, and there is still a great feeling of confidence internally.

Sawyer feels everything in the sector is moving forward well right now. “We’ve seen recessions [but] it takes quite a bit to see a dip in the work that we’ve done.” Projects are waiting in the pipeline as there is still a great need for the exceptional services that Blue Flame Crew has always provided.

Blue Flame Crew is always focused on client satisfaction, its main goal since it began ten years ago. “We want to do work better than the other guys and put out a better product,” Sawyer states. The company will always be chasing steady and controlled growth, taking on just the right amount to push itself to the next level. This will be in tandem with keeping eyes out for the next opportunity and another fresh face to add to the team. Now that the effects of the pandemic have begun to settle, the road ahead seems steady for Blue Flame Crew and its dedicated group of workers.

The post “What Don’t We Do?” This Crew Celebrates Continued Success<p class="company">Blue Flame Crew, LLC</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

“We know the community; we know the people; we know the businesses; we know the metro city mayors and have mutually beneficial relationships with them,” says Echo Tech President Robert (Bobby) Lee. “Growing partnerships we have garnered over the years has given Ecotech the opportunity to grow with the community and to provide a benefit to all that use our services.”

Because the owners were born and raised in the area, they have formed a company culture “of wanting to help others and to solve issues that occur within the solid waste, recycling, and disposal industry for the region,” Lee adds. “We have a pride and the ability to make Louisville and Southern Indiana a great place to reside, being that we have grown up here.”

Service is another particularly important aspect that sets the company apart. “When a customer calls, they get a live person that knows the area and our services and can better answer their needs,” Lee says. “The Ecotech employee wants to help the customer and will do whatever it takes to get the solution, even if it requires getting other team members involved. Senior management is always available to help, no matter the customer, no matter the circumstances.”

To ensure service remains top-notch in every circumstance, the team strives to meet the inevitable challenges that come with running a business. “Challenges develop daily,” Lee says. “The difference between Ecotech and others is that when mistakes happen, we fix them in a timely manner and ensure that the mistake does not happen again. Quality service is what we strive for with every customer, no matter the size.”

Creative problem solving is another differentiating factor. “Ecotech can think outside the box and do more for our customers,” Lee says. “Yes, we specialize in solid waste and recycling, but when a customer needs more and doesn’t have a clue what to do, we will go out of our way to find them the proper help or will do the job ourselves. From operating heavy equipment to helping with a project to paper shredding for local cities, we try to be the one-stop-shop for everyone. We provide solutions for all that we can handle.”

Another defining feature of Echo Tech is the team’s commitment to philanthropic endeavors. “One of Ecotech’s missions from inception was to give back, be it through donations, community work, or hosting events for those in need,” Lee says. “Having the opportunity and the ability to help those in need has been a focus for all Ecotech employees and shows in everything we do.”

For example, in 2012, Henryville, Indiana was hit hard by a devastating tornado. “Many lives were changed, and many homes were destroyed,” Lee says. “Ecotech was one of the main providers for helping with the cleanup and helping others get their lives back. Many of the Ecotech employees volunteered and worked thirty days straight to provide some comfort to those in need in the area. We were involved in cleaning and disposing of the debris, helping residents sort through the rubble to salvage personal items they could, and doing whatever it took to help bring some hope from the tragedies the tornado brought about.”

After supporting the Henryville tornado victims, the company launched the 10,000 Trees initiative to help restore the local foliage and beautify the area. The team pledged to plant 10,000 trees in ten years, starting in Henryville. Since then, they have planted trees in nearly every community throughout the Louisville and Southern Indiana region, with a total of 8,900 trees planted so far. The plan is to reach 10,000 trees by 2023.

Lee has special needs family members, which inspired him to support the special needs community since Echo Tech was founded. This commitment began with donating and supporting the Special Olympics and Dreams with Wings. Four years ago, his grandson Trystan was diagnosed with Autism, and the team decided to take their efforts a step further to “spread awareness of all special needs individuals,” Lee remembers.

“Ecotech has become ‘the puzzle piece’ company. We have branded our trucks with the Autism puzzle pieces to help spread the message that special needs individuals and individuals on the spectrum are just like everyone else. Supporting and helping the families with these individuals should be supported by all.”

Currently, ten Ecotech employees have special needs family members. “We have incorporated those families in the events we host and participate in to not only help them but let them be a part of the special needs community and to provide them with resources to help their families when needed,” Lee says.

For the past two years, Ecotech has hosted a sensory-friendly meet-and-greet with Santa Claus in partnership with the local non-profits Barren Heights and Families for Effective Autism Treatment (FEAT). When the pandemic hit, the team set up a drive-through bay in the truck shop with lights and decorations, so children could get their picture taken with Santa Claus and tell him what they wanted for Christmas from the safety of their vehicle.

Last year, the team was able to set aside a room where children and their families could take all the time they needed to have a one-on-one meet and greet with Santa Claus without the stress of a crowd. They also created an elf workshop where participants could make crafts, play games, enjoy a snack, and celebrate the holidays with other special needs families.

In 2021, the event welcomed 135 children, and the team is eager to expand the celebration this year. “We invite all, not just special needs, to be a part of the meet and greet and to volunteer their time to help make it a special time for all children,” Lee adds.

In 2021, Ecotech won FEAT’s Autism Friendly Business of the Year award. “What this means is that our company has been set up to employ and help those with special needs work at our company,” Lee explains. “Having a sensory-friendly room as well as accommodating their needs is part of becoming an autism-friendly workplace.”

Three years ago, it launched a program where employees could voluntarily donate $1.00 or more from their weekly paycheck. “Each quarter, we choose a foundation or a cause to donate to,” Lee says. Ecotech matches the amount donated from employee paychecks during that time.

Each quarter’s recipient can vary greatly, depending on current needs. For instance, during the pandemic, the company purchased 600 meals for front-line workers at a local hospital “that were a major support and help during the COVID crisis.” Ecotech has also used employee donations to help build an accessible park for special needs kids in Georgetown Indiana. In addition, it has been FEAT’s 5K Run for Autism’s premier sponsor for two years.

Ecotech has exciting plans for the future. With the rising price of fuel as a driving motivation, the company is currently in the process of implementing a compressed natural gas (CNG) station at its shop, which will be able to fill up to seventy-five trucks. “The CNG station will not only help us with our fuel cost but will also help reduce our carbon footprint,” Lee says. The team expects to complete the station by the fourth quarter of 2022. Ecotech currently boasts twenty-five CNG trucks and plans to convert all front load and residential trucks to CNG.

Despite recent challenges from the pandemic and the ongoing worker shortage, Ecotech continues to grow and thrive. “Ecotech has obtained double-digit growth every year for the past six years,” Lee says. “Though 2022 has been a little slower due to the economic crisis, we have positioned ourselves with the proper equipment and employees to grow each line of business and support our customers and community for many years to come.”

The owners are set on keeping that commitment to the local community, despite potentially lucrative opportunities to sell. “With all the mergers and acquisitions in the market, many have asked us if we plan to sell,” Lee says. “No, we do not. In 2023, Ecotech will be in business for twenty-five years, and we plan to be in business for at least twenty-five more. Through relationships, strong leadership, proper planning, and hard work, Ecotech has positioned itself to be a leader in the market and has the capability of future expansion. Ecotech has a reputation of a strong, hardworking, caring local company that many are attracted to. We plan on continuing this reputation.”

The post A Company That Cares<p class="company">Ecotech</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

ICE is a privately held corporation, established in 2007 to offer the industrial, construction, and environmental industries top-notch logistical, material management and transportation services, ICE employs an impressive workforce composed of chemists, logistical experts, health and safety officers, Contractor Quality Control System Managers (CQCSM), educators, engineers, and field technicians to ensure safety and protocol compliance.

With offices in New Jersey, South Carolina, South Florida and Tennessee, as well as field / project locations across the United States, ICE serves its customers anywhere in North America, including Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

The founders and key employees of the company have decades of combined experience in a range of transportation methods, logistical support, packing, material management and handling, transloading / transferring, and sales and leasing of transportation equipment.

“We’ve worked together in the industry going on 30 plus years now,” says Morgan, now Senior Program Manager—Special Projects. “We followed each other through the industry and worked for different companies together. Prior to the formation of ICE, we worked with another startup logistics company in the late 90s and early 2000s that we helped grow substantially.

Like a lot of small business owners, the founders basically mortgaged their houses and used their savings. He says, “ICE wasn’t financially backed by anybody. Today, the company is still self-funded.”

Using the knowledge and experience gained from years spent working with other companies, they took those lessons learned and put them into what they’re now doing at ICE.

“One of the ways we’ve grown is by talking to clients and customers and really finding out what their needs are,” says Morgan. “When people ask us, ‘what are your keys to success?’ the one thing is, we don’t say no. When a client calls and says, ‘can you transport this?’ even though we may have never moved what they’re asking us to move, we never say no. We say we will take a look at it, we put our heads together and try to figure out if we want to get into this market, and what are the risks and rewards.”

Now experts in a variety of transportation and material management markets, which include -low-level radioactive waste, RCRA and TSCA waste, non-hazardous waste, biodiesel / ethanol, steel and metal, paper / pulp / wood, and sand, to name a few, ICE’s crew also boasts years of practical expertise in decontamination, demolition, remediation, logistics, industrial services, and education.

ICE supports private, commercial, and government customers, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). These sites include Superfund cleanup sites, FUSRAP sites, decommissioning, dismantlement, and demolition sites, as well as other associated environmental remediation and construction sites.

“It became easier to get involved in other commodities that we typically wouldn’t have because we were focused on hazardous waste and radioactive waste,” says Morgan. “That helped us grow. We’ve moved everything from sand from Ohio to Dubai, believe it or not, to steel from Texas to Ohio.”

The company’s main business, however, is the hazardous material market, the commercial nuclear power industry segment in particular. This specialty requires supporting active power plants that are in re-up modes, changing out their equipment, disposing of their day-to-day material, and managing the packaging and transportation of the components and waste generated during the decommissioning of commercial nuclear power plants.

“We’re working at several nuclear power plants throughout the country where we’re working for contractors that are decommissioning them, and we’re managing all the packaging and transportation logistics for them,” Morgan says. “We’re also working at a lot of the Department of Energy (DOE) labs throughout the country that are involved with past legacy work, to work on former sites involved with the Manhattan Project that are being managed by USACE.”

Being constantly innovative, he stresses, is a big part of the company’s longevity. “We’re always looking at doing things more efficiently, more strategically. Can we improve on something, do we develop a new container, do we develop a new soft-sided bag?” says Morgan. “Sometimes a client will give us a scope of work to fill out based on how they want to do the project, and we’ll look at it and say, ‘we’ll quote it the way you want it quoted, but we’ll give you some alternatives too that you maybe haven’t thought about.’”

Showing clients how to save money, either through transportation alone or by reducing the schedule by doing something a little different, is a top priority for ICE.

“A lot of our keys to success have been convincing clients to get us involved early on in the design phase of the project, the planning stages, so we can help them improve their efficiencies by getting a project done quicker,” says Morgan. “Not having a longer period of time where you’re having a bunch of equipment on a project means you shave one to two months or more off of project, and the savings is significant.”

Transportation plays a vital role in ICE’s success, with a host of options at the team’s disposal. The company offers rail services all over North America, where a variety of materials can be delivered effectively and safely thanks to the company’s intermodal containers and fleet of privately marked railcars. “Our transportation assets number well into the hundreds, including cargo containers, intermodal containers, gondola railcars, rail tank cars and rail flatcars.”

There’s also heavy-haul / over-dimensional machinery and equipment with truck-to-rail or rail-to-truck transloading or transferring if an origin or receiving site is not directly supplied by rail. ICE has access to a vast network of trucking assets across North America and offers flatbed (45′, 48′, and 53′), drop deck, low-boy, van, tanker, and dump vehicles as well as trailers and trucks.

Marine (river and ocean) transportation services across North America include international marine shipments coming to and from the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Caribbean Islands with continuously provide cargo container/intermodal shipments for a wide range of materials including plastic, hazardous waste, non-hazardous waste, biodiesel, rope, steel and other materials.

While the most cost-effective mode of transportation is often by rail or ship, if a railroad can’t reach the origin or destination site, ICE can transload and/or transfer material between various modes of transportation, whether it’s temporary or more extensive/long-term.

On the packaging side, the company uses a variety of options including intermodal containers, cargo containers, and soft-sided packages. In 2017, the ownership team of ICE purchased the assets of a soft-sided packaging company, Strategic Packaging Systems, LLC in Madisonville, Tennessee. The new company, ICE Packaging Company, LLC d/b/a Strategic Packaging Systems (SPS), operates out of 75,000 square feet of office, manufacturing and warehousing space. The primary goal of SPS is providing the environmental, construction, and industrial sectors with alternative packaging through custom design, manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution.

That attention to customer service, coupled with acquiring the right team for the job, is one of the main reasons ICE continues to succeed year after year.

“No matter what you have, no matter what the product or service is, if you don’t have the right team of people behind you, you’re not going to succeed,” Morgan says. “You could have the best product in the world, but if you can’t get that product out to the right people, you’re going to have a very expensive paperweight basically.”

Everyone involved in ICE plays a key role in its successes, he adds, with a company turnover rate that’s all but non-existent.

While team spirit and the commitment to the company and each other are vital, this approach also brings its own challenges, says Morgan. “Getting the right people is difficult. We have a certain way we do things, and finding the right people is always a challenge.”

This means recruiting individuals who have the same work ethic and beliefs on how to get things done. “We don’t believe in cutting corners,” Morgan says. “We’re doing things right the first time. We’ve never failed on a project. Our customers are repeat customers, and nine out of 10 times if we lose a project, they come back to us realizing they might have paid less to go somewhere else, but they didn’t get their final project like they should have.”

ICE doesn’t sell on price alone, he adds. If clients are looking at just the number, there’s a lot more involved with that number than what’s on paper, especially if they want the job done properly.

While milestones are numerous, one that Morgan is particularly proud of is the company’s safety record, with no lost-time injuries, and no work-related injuries ever. “We’re in a pretty dangerous industry,” he says. “We’ve moved well in excess of 15 million tons of material safely. That’s significant.”

That success isn’t the only thing that sets ICE apart from competitors, however.

“I don’t like to use the word competition, because I don’t think we have a competitor,” says Morgan. “We have companies that do similar things that we do in certain parts, but I really feel that when you look at the whole scope of services, there’s really no one out there that does what we do.”

Whether undertaking shipments by truck, rail or marine, transloading, or managing the way clients ask to handle disposal contracts with facilities, ICE does it all, with boots on the ground.

“We’re multifaceted,” Morgan says. “Clients ask for shippers to be on site for six months to manage all the paperwork; okay. And that’s grown over time. For the majority of our larger projects, someone’s on site full-time or part-time. We also have a good mix of projects, from campaign work where it only lasts a day, to projects that last six months, to long-term projects that go on for five or seven years. And it all goes back to not saying no.”

The post Haul Aboard: Saying Yes to Waste Removal<p class="company">I.C.E. Service Group, Inc.</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

We caught up with ML Crane’s President Caroline Asimakopoulos in an executive airport lounge, on her return to company headquarters in Denver, after visiting some of the group’s strategically located 11 branches.

She explains how ML Crane—a part of ML Holdings which includes ML Utilities, ML Distribution Group, and ML Environmental Group—began in 2007 through the acquisition of two Crane Service Inc. locations in Albuquerque and Bloomfield, New Mexico. ML Crane grew solidly over the next 11 years by opening greenfield operations in areas such as Sweetwater, Texas, and through six additional acquisitions across Texas, Illinois, Colorado, and Maryland.

Reaching across industry
Although ML Crane is indeed a crane rental company, it is much, much more, with considerable expertise provided by its 500-plus employees. The company’s specialties include heavy lifting, rigging, heavy hauling, alternative movement, and warehouse / storage solutions, and it serves a broad range of industries with customized solutions and skilled operators.

Included in the spectrum is the renewable energy sector, as well as the refining and petrochemical sectors; power generation and distribution; HVAC / mechanical; infrastructure / maintenance, and building construction; and government, commercial and residential.

Asimakopoulos says that, last year, ML Crane’s business comprised 20 percent wind, 30 percent petrochemical, 40 percent construction, and 10 percent other.

“We want to continue to diversify both geographically and through our end-market segmentation,” she says. “Our recent expansion in renewables and petrochemicals has been as much about diversifying the type of work we are going after and geography, as it has been about the end-market segmentation.”

Cranes are used in refineries, which periodically must be completely shut down for maintenance and repair. The last major one the company serviced was in Illinois and used 38 cranes.

In the oil fields, cranes are used to build the drill rigs and for fracking, and on wind farms cranes are used not only to install the towers and blades, but throughout the life of the wind turbine on the farm. They are required when blades, gearboxes, and generators must be replaced or general maintenance done on the turbines.

“There are so many needs and uses for cranes. It’s an exciting time for us. There is a huge emphasis on renewables right now and we’re there to help that industry, but we also know oil and gas is not going away so we continue to invest there as well,” she says.

A part of something
Appointed President of ML Crane on August 5, 2021, Asimakopoulos had joined the company in 2018 as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Operations, bringing with her more than 20 years of experience in finance, accounting, and operations.

She had begun her career working for a smaller company “that was very entrepreneurial, but then we were bought out and became part of a large public company, and I didn’t want that,” she explains. “I wanted to be in a company where we could make big things happen, where we could make decisions and grow it.”

Following advice from a mutual friend, she interviewed with ML Holdings owners, Bob Matz, Chair, and David Matz, President. By the end of the interview, she knew she wanted to work with them, much of her decision to do with the entrepreneurial opportunities that were available.

“I wanted to be part of building something. My background and experience were a great fit to help move the company from being a series of branch-centric siloed entities, to an aligned company focused on growth, excellence, and customer service.”

Aligning an industry
Over the last three years, ML Crane has been on a journey to align under one vision and one set of core values.

“Our vision is to be the best partner for our customers and an employer of choice. The intent behind the multiple acquisitions had always been to capitalize on the strength of a larger company with more talent and equipment. However, we needed to stop treating each other as competitors to get there,” says Asimakopoulos.

“Today we are rebranding under ML Crane, and we partner with each other to give our customer the highest quality service experience. The result is that we can meet all our customers’ needs, whether setting a small air conditioner or moving a 600,000-pound transformer,” she explains. “We are not a crane rental company or a transport company. We are the partner that will help our customers find the best solutions for their lifting and transportation needs.”

ML Crane’s culture is focused on core values of safety, integrity, accountability, collaboration, and respect, which Asimakopoulos says are “not just on a poster on a wall.” It is the company’s firm expectation that leaders and team members will make decisions using those values. “That means,” she says, “there’ll be times when we make a choice that’s not the choice our customer wants; however, we’ll never compromise on the safety of our employees.”

Diversity pays dividends
In keeping with the company’s vision of being the best partner to its customers and employer of choice, she says it comes down to hiring the best people in the marketplace and this is where diversity comes into the equation. The company does not spell out a diversity policy, but always looks for talent from diversified backgrounds and perspectives. That can include different industry or business experience, gender diversity, and ethnic diversity.

While the crane industry does have fewer female employees than many others, that has changed in the last few years, and Asimakopoulos notes that the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association (SC&RA) recently announced they have launched a women’s executive round table.

“Research shows that companies with diverse leadership have better performance and our vision and goals will require that we continue to find the highest quality people regardless of gender,” she says.

The company owns most of its own equipment, which includes approximately 300 cranes across its network. When the cranes go out, they go with a qualified operator. Eighty-five percent of the company’s locations are unionized, which means employees are trained through the apprentice program at what Asimakopoulos calls “fantastic, state-of-the-art training centers.”

To ensure that the remaining 15 percent of non-unionized employees also receive training and achieve certification, the company has just opened a training center at its Albuquerque location, which includes training in rigging, signaling, and crane operation.

“In my experience in the automotive industry, specific continued training and certification is provided as part of the normal operations, but this is something the crane industry has not done well. People in the crane industry have said to me that they don’t want to pay for training because they had to pay for their own and don’t want to pay for someone who may leave their company to work for another. But we flipped that upside down. We are going to pay for people while they train, and to the industry people who say, ‘but what if they leave?’ we say, ‘what if we don’t train them and they don’t leave?’”

Re-connecting
As pandemic restrictions lift, Asimakopoulos is pleased that company representatives are now attending trade shows, something in which ML Crane had only limited participation until industry veteran John Rowe was hired as Chief Commercial Officer and Marilyn Wilkes joined as Marketing Specialist.

“There are probably hundreds of conferences and shows we could attend,” Wilkes says, “so we need to make sure we get out what we put in and go to the ones that will benefit us, the ones where we can build solid relationships. Typically, we attend about eighteen annually, in the Gulf Coast and Mid-Atlantic Regions,” she shares.

“As well as meeting customers, you also make strong industry connections,” she adds. “We are in competition with a lot of other companies at the shows, and yet there are times when you have to reach out to your competition for help and they may need to reach out to you as well. Industry events are a very good way to make these connections and build strong relationships.”

The future is bright
The company has outlined a three-year plan intended to double its size, to be accomplished through both organic growth and acquisition. This involves geographical expansion, such as the two new greenfield locations in Houston, Texas, which recently opened, and Iowa, which is coming soon, and the development of new divisions.

Renewables, heavily focused in Colorado, have already tripled the company’s wind-energy business since last year, while the Capitol Projects division will focus on complex engineering projects, including construction of structures such as bridges and airports.

At ML Crane, all the pieces of the business puzzle—acquisitions and diversification; training and education; relationships and customer service—are interlocked, ensuring success for this company which is building the future.

The post A Nationwide Lift for the Crane Industry<p class="company">ML Crane</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Creating a better world requires environmental care and green efficiency in all businesses, especially when confronting methane emissions. Unfortunately, it’s an ever-present by-product of energy-business operations, with thousands of tons of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) methane released into the atmosphere every day.

The substance in question – which has 80 times the warming capacity of CO₂ in the first two decades after entering the atmosphere – must be removed from a pressurized system before a pig launcher is opened at a natural gas processing facility, or before an isolated section of pipeline is removed and replaced.

This usually means flaring or venting of the gas which releases methane and other greenhouse gases (GHG) directly into the atmosphere.

The fix is ready
WeldFit has a fix with ReCAP, a gas recovery system that ensures a constant transfer rate, allowing for quick and easy gas recapture and making ESG targets attainable. Environmental audits reveal that the ReCAP Emissions Recovery System reduces methane emissions by up to 99.99 percent when compared to venting or flaring.

“Sustainability to us in the gas industry is moving product from wellhead to consumer,” says Adam Murray, Vice President, WeldFit Performance Products.

Traditionally, when companies must take down a line or a piece of equipment, they lose a bit of product, that being natural gas. “By using the company’s ReCAP emissions reduction system, it allows them to capture even the remaining percentage of gas, recompressing that and keeping it in the system.”

ReCAP employs technology that does one simple but critical task in support of ESG-driven methane emission reduction goals: During routine pipeline operations, it reduces the need for voluntary natural gas flaring or venting commonly associated with blowdowns.

“ReCAP, at its core fundamental design and function, allows our customers to reach their sustainability goals,” says Eric Heinle, President, Pigging and Performance Products. “It safely and efficiently prevents voluntary venting of emissions into the atmosphere.”

For a lot of WeldFit customers, those emissions reductions and goals are part of their long-term and near-term/current strategy, and ReCAP allows them to achieve those.

Focus on the pipeline
“WeldFit, in general, is focused on the pipeline, so our mission statement is we want to make pipelines more productive,” says Heinle. “We also pride ourselves on being reliable and ready to serve as well as being very innovative.”

By recapturing gas from pipeline sections that have been isolated for depressurization, and quickly transferring it to a nearby pressurized system, pipeline operators can safely and easily minimize methane emissions.

Additionally, thanks to ReCAP’s Straight-Line Performance – a patent-pending technology from WeldFit that generates a near constant and predictable depressurization rate from start to finish – the crucial work that follows can be started on time.

“Every emission occurrence we can eliminate has a meaningful impact because methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere,” says Murray. “This also enhances the safety and well-being of the people that live nearby and of our operators. It’s important for us to be environmental stewards, but it also helps with moving forward our license to operate.”

To date, the company has saved more than 18,000 metric tons of CO₂e, or more than 42 million standard cubic feet of natural gas, an amount that will grow exponentially in the next few months, making a significant impact.

“Over the past 30 years, oil demand has gone up 66 percent, and natural gas production is up 96 percent. In that same time methane intensity dropped almost 20 percent,” says Murray. “A drop like that during stagnant production would be great, but to do it with such gains has been just incredible. As bad as the industry gets picked apart, what we’ve done is remarkable.”

Sustainability is a vital part of the company’s mandate, one built into its core and one it continues to impress on its clients.

“We’re about the six Cs, and common sense and customer-focused are two of them. Our customers are certainly wanting to move into the more environmentally friendly space,” says Murray. “With a lot of our products we do have some inherent environmental advantages built in to that and ReCAP only enhances all of those.”

A changing world
That environmental awareness is being seen across the industry as changes are implemented daily.

“There are new rules to curb methane emissions in particular,” says Murray. “At the 2021 Climate Summit in Glasgow, 100 countries took the Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions. That’s pretty significant.”

In fact, the U.S. led that initiative aimed at reducing methane emissions by 30 percent in nine years, mostly through tougher legislation governing methane leaks from oil and gas operations. Many of the techniques are aimed at averting large-scale leaks.

“The Build Back Better Bill, whether it passes or not, has carbon fees and methane-emission fees built into it that could severely impact the economics of methane emissions,” Murray adds. “It’s just a matter of following the technology that we already have. I think our industry has a mandate to make a meaningful impact on the environment.”

Another big challenge WeldFit faces is creating awareness and helping to bring its customers’ operations in compliance with regulatory requirements in the industry as the market evolves at a rapid pace.

“I’m sure more and more of those regulations are going to come out and as companies are now being mandated by local and state jurisdictions, obviously it would be great to have federal regulations emerge. But, state by state, they’re starting to release these regulations which will allow ReCAP to do that,” says Heinle.

WeldFit spent an incredible amount of time on awareness early on when commercializing ReCAP, which launched in September 2021, says Murray. Much was given to letting people know about ReCAP’s abilities and how it can be used to keep the gas in the pipeline.

“We spend a lot of time trying to help our customers navigate these new regulations and understand how this can apply to their current operations with minimal disruption,” adds Heinle.

Hard value, easy choice
“In some regards, this is viewed not only as perception but, in reality, as a cost or time matter. We’re trying to make sure they understand not only the social responsibility value of recovering the gas but the actual hard value of not venting or flaring that gas, of keeping it in the pipeline, and also doing it in a way that doesn’t slow down their operations and still allows them to be very efficient,” says Heinle.

ReCAP’s innovations and abilities have recently been recognized: It won the Innovation Award at the PPIM (Pipeline Pigging and Integrity Management) conference this year. The fight to create awareness isn’t done yet, however.

“Because every state has different rules and regulations, keeping up with those ever-changing targets is tough,” Murray says, and WeldFit is taking its task seriously.

Chief Strategy Officer Todd Sale recently became a certified ESG expert and sustainability officer. “He graduated from the Energy Workforce and Technology Council ESG certification program,” says Murray. “So, we’re not only committed to helping the environment where we can, we’re investing in it with our products and with our people. We mustn’t be just saying this stuff; we’re doing it and we’re acting on it.”

The key is the people, Murray adds. “We care. Everyone in the industry is outdoorsy and active. It’s a culture we go by and that’s what sets us apart. It’s all about the right people in the right place.”

And the people are up for the challenge of facing the industry and the ESG movement’s rapid change which makes it so demanding to keep up and stay ahead.

“The good news is WeldFit is privately owned and very people-focused,” says Murray. “They allowed Todd to get his ESG certification, and they allow my engineering group to help create products that make an immediate impact, rather than these big glacial companies that move very slowly.”

Much more to be done
The result is a big impact in a short time, he says, but there’s still a lot more to be done. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (USEIA) still vents or flares almost 1.5 billion cubic feet per day.

There’s good news, however: Every day companies are seeing the importance, and the benefits, of reducing methane – the same companies that WeldFit talked to maybe two months ago, and are talking to again today, says Heinle.

“They’re evolving every day and becoming more inquisitive and more receptive to the technology, whether it’s because they’re being told to or just because they’re adopting it. We’re seeing more and more acceptance across the board, which is good.”

WeldFit will continue to partner with its clients to understand their needs and challenges, developing solutions to help them achieve environmental goals with minimal disruption to operations while continuing to be profitable and effective.

“Creating that awareness is key, making sure folks understand that the solution and the technology are there and that the process is something that should be recorded and celebrated positively, versus it being just another thing they have to do,” says Heinle.

The ReCAP technology, Murray adds, is very innovative, safe, fast, efficient, and effective. People have been searching for a solution like this, and almost every day WeldFit comes upon a new application by which this technology can help the environment.

“I do think our solution is resonating,” says Heinle. “ReCAP specifically is resonating in the market because of those points. We partner with our clients, and our technology is differentiated in that it allows them to be more efficient while they’re doing all of these things. It’s pretty exciting stuff.”

The post Moderating Methane: Sustainability Through Emissions Reduction<p class="company">WeldFit</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.