These four words, uttered in the original Star Trek series in the mid-sixties, continue to inspire the American dream of space exploration which began with the ‘space race’ between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Triggered by the 1957 launch of satellite Sputnik 1 and soon followed by Soviet air forces pilot Yuri Gagarin becoming the first person to fly in space in 1961, pressure was on the U.S.

President John F. Kennedy famously told Congress, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

Although Kennedy would not live to see his dream realized, America ultimately won the Cold War geopolitical battle when Apollo 11 became the first lunar-landing mission and Neil Armstrong went on to be the first human being to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.

Decades in the making
Over 50 years later, the moon landing remains one of the most important events in history. For the U.S., the costly, dangerous mission was about not only being the first to reach the moon, 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) distant from Earth, but to gather valuable data. Over the course of three hours, Armstrong and fellow astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin walked the surface, collecting samples of rocks and dirt, while Mike Collins remained in orbit, taking photos and conducting experiments.

Apollo 11, the moon landing, and the dream of spaceflight would not have been possible without the vision of Robert Goddard. A pioneering rocket engineer, physics teacher, and author, the visionary Goddard published his book A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes in 1919 about a rocket making its way to the moon.

Testing the first rocket engines powered by liquid fuel in 1923 (previously only solid fuel was used), in 1926 Goddard successfully launched the first liquid-fueled rocket, propelled by gasoline and liquid oxygen. Over the coming decades, he equipped rockets with cameras, thermometers and barometers, took out over 200 rocket-related patents, and became the director of research for the U.S. Department of the Navy at the Bureau of Aeronautics, before dying in 1945.

During his lifetime, Goddard oversaw the construction of rockets able to reach speeds of 550 mph (885 km/h), and soar to heights of 1.5 miles, about 2 kilometers. His pioneering work – along with that of Russian counterpart, rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) – not only led to the development of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs, but the possibility of setting up colonies on other planets and mining asteroids.

Mars within reach
Today, Earth’s resources are running out, pressuring governments, entrepreneurs and visionaries to explore the possibility of mining other planets.

Tremendous advances in technology mean that asteroid mining and long-distance space exploration are no longer the preserve of science fiction writers and filmmakers, but a prospect steadily looming closer. The nearest habitable planet in our solar system is Mars, with a surface area close to that of dry land on Earth.

Factors including favorable temperatures, a slightly longer day with sunlight to power solar panels, a thin but protective atmosphere, and a gravity that’s 38 percent of that on Earth combine to make Mars a strong contender for terraforming – a literal transformation of the Red Planet – making it able to host human life and support experimentation.

Gaining momentum in recent years, the vision of furthering space exploration and settlement goes back a long way, with the Soviet Union sending satellites into orbit in the early Sixties and attempting to reach Mars. They were defeated by the U.S. and Mariner 4, which flew by Mars on July 14, 1965, sending back 21 blurry photos.

On January 14, 2004, then-President George W. Bush reaffirmed America’s desire to further uncover the mysteries of space. Praising the dedicated men and women at NASA, Bush spoke of “a new focus and vision for future exploration.” He mentioned the space shuttle – which had flown over 100 times at that point – and various dramatic discoveries, including evidence of water, “a key ingredient for life on Mars and on the moons of Jupiter.”

Reinforcing the importance of returning to the Moon, Bush noted that a longer presence on the surface would lower the cost of future space exploration.

“Lifting heavy spacecraft and fuel out of the Earth’s gravity is expensive,” he said. “Spacecraft assembled and provisioned on the moon could escape its far-lower gravity using far less energy and thus far less cost. Also the moon is home to abundant resources. Its soil contains raw materials that might be harvested and processed into rocket fuel or breathable air… With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond.”

Lowdown on logistics
The logistics involved in lengthy space missions such as Earth to Mars are, in a word, formidable.

At a minimum distance of 33.9 million miles (54.6 million kilometers) it would take about seven months to get to Mars. Although that’s a shorter spell than the almost 438 consecutive days Russian astronaut Valery Polyakov spent aboard the Mir Space Station, it would take a special breed of person to endure over 200 days on a one-way trip to Mars.

While scientists continue to make discoveries via Mars exploration rovers, minerals useful to future colonists are already known to exist on Mars. These are the same sort of deposits found on Earth, consisting of iron, aluminum, magnesium, titanium, and nickel-iron meteorites.

Among the most useful metals are niobium – similar to titanium, and used in steel and superconductors – and europium, used in television sets, the manufacturing of laser glass and fluorescent glass, and LED light bulbs. These and other metallic elements would be extremely useful in helping future colonists to sustain a presence on Mars.

One option is to have humans mining the surface of Mars. Another is to group them into colonies orbiting Mars, remotely controlling robots on the planet that perform all mining tasks. Considering the many recent advances in remote control and teleoperated mining equipment here on Earth – where a remote operator uses cameras, sensors and GPS to direct operations – this concept isn’t as far-fetched as it might seem.

Like any space endeavor, colonizing Mars will take money – a lot of it. Aspirant space pioneers so far include Tesla’s Elon Musk, whose passion for exploration led him to create SpaceX, which designs, builds and launches spacecraft. In 2018, the eccentric Musk outlined the excitement and dangers of travel to Mars.

Others who proposed travel to Mars included Mars One. A private Dutch company, it was active from 2012 until it went bankrupt in 2019. The founders of Mars One proposed the readying of a human crew to fly to the Red Planet in 2024 and in 2026. With a lack of research into the necessary aspects of medicine, electricity and life support, and widely criticized by scientists, the scheme was dismissed as a suicide mission by many.

Mapping a million-mile leap
In late 2018, researchers from the Switzerland-based École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) university created a guide for a sustainable research facility on Mars. Unlike Mars One, the university’s step-by-step plan included the best place to colonize – near Mars’s ice-filled poles, which would supply water – and ways to utilize the planet’s natural resources like iron, sulfur, and aluminum to make glass and other products.

They also stipulated that, prior to any mining, a dome for human habitation would have to be constructed, and that the first crew would be expected to remain on Mars for about nine months. Supplementary flights carrying supplies and further equipment such as cranes would have to be scheduled.

Others, including NASA, are actively pursuing asteroid operations, notably with the OSIRIS-REx mission. Having already captured the first images of the Asteroid Bennu (on August 17, 2018, from 1.4 million miles – 2.2 million kilometers), OSIRIS-Rex will fly close to the asteroid, “and will ultimately touch the surface for five seconds to gather a sample of the asteroid,” according to NASA. The final stage, the sampling, will be conducted through TAGSAM, a Touch-and-Go-Sample-Acquisition-Mechanism instrument using a blast of nitrogen gas to gather regolith – loose surface deposits. Once it’s determined that a sample has been successfully collected, the spacecraft will make its way back to Earth.

Although former President Bush’s goals of returning to the moon and of astronauts landing on Mars this year will not happen as he anticipated, these and other outer space explorations should eventuate fairly soon. Although most of the constraints on timing have less to do with the thrills of discovery than with finance, governments and private companies alike recognize that there should be incredible wealth to be had in mining other planets.

In 2017, U.S. Senator for Texas, Ted Cruz – who also represents Houston, home of the Johnson Space Center – famously said, “The first trillionaire will be made in space; will be the entrepreneur who invests and makes discoveries in space that we cannot even envision. Right now we have billionaires, the prediction I’m making: the first trillionaire will be in the space exploration world.”

Considering that asteroids like Psyche 16 – located in the orbits between Mars and Jupiter – contain platinum and gold, he may very well be right.

The post Tapping the Universe<p class="company">Asteroid and Space Mining</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Representing a significant investment for the mining industry, buckets, ground engaging tools, and their associated wear products come at a considerable expense to each property.

With Ross and Paul Woodward’s founding of The Bucket Shop (TBS) in 1994, their mission was simple: bring extended lifecycle and reduce the overall cost of ownership through innovative proprietary designs and a lifetime of experience in the earthmoving and manufacturing sectors.

Over the years The Bucket Shop has evolved from its humble beginnings of two employees in a small Quonset hut to the development of its new state-of-the-art 85,000 square foot manufacturing facility. The new facility was designed with material handling in mind, equipped with nine cranes ranging from 15 to 70 Tons and automated electric carts to carry parts to their associated manufacturing bays. Material handling comes at a great cost; therefore, the development of this assembly line ensures the utmost efficiency.

In addition to their material handling improvements, the Woodward family made significant investments in tooling. The new plant boasts both a New Machitech 100’ CNC Plasma Cutter and a Metfab 770 Ton press brake. With the full intention of serving their mining partners, the team needed to tool up to meet demand, and these two equipment assets were necessary investments when dealing with the large iron required to efficiently mine the area.

The 100’ Plasma Cutter was specifically designed to handle custom sized steel sheets to support the local mines. This tool works 18 hours a day and has an appetite of roughly 80 tonnes of steel plate per month. All work begins at the CNC controlled pattern cutter.

“It’s an amazing piece of technology that allows us to do a lot of amazing things, and it keeps us very productive,” comments Jamie Pouw, Market Development Manager. “It’s the start of basically every single project that comes in.”

Bucket Shop benefits
There are significant benefits for all companies to be doing business with The Bucket Shop.

Along with manufacturing new attachments, the company is known for its innovative ability to extend the lifecycle of attachments. This leads to much lower replacement costs, improved safety, reduced energy consumption, increased productivity, and other benefits.

The team at TBS has introduced unique ways to prolong the lifespan of buckets and other costly purchases. These include such engineered solutions as a lip system and heel shrouds.

Designed to work with different scoop-tram, loaders and excavator bucket configurations, the lip system – mounted on the existing lip of the bucket – combines “425 brinell castings coupled with strategically placed 700 brinell specialty alloy inserts,” Extremely durable, the lip is easy to install, boosts production, reduces downtime, and extends lifecycle by two to three times.

Value-added services
TBS offers a full suite of Fleet Management services. TBS sends assessment technicians to mine sites monthly, to measure wear percentage and check product performance. Its trained technicians provide full reports on every aspect of your bucket. These reports contain complete repair recommendations and alert customers to take worn assets out of service for overhaul and eliminate emergency downtime.

“The physical audit gives us the evidence we need to report back to the company that they are on track,” says Pouw. “What that does for the mining company is give them information [about] when the machine is scheduled to be taken out of service for maintenance and determine the lifecycle on its wear components. The audit service we provide helps the mine in its maintenance forecasting, not only for production impact, but for financial impact.”

In addition to serving its mining clients, TBS uses the audit data collected at various mining properties to further improve and innovate its castings and buckets line. All data and wear attributes are gathered and studied to continually improve the product offering. The company prides itself on its ability to meet its customers’ needs through the development of their line.

“Our Fleet Management services become a win/win situation for both TBS and our clients. All data collected is used to further improve our products to ensure we supply the better built bucket,” says Curtis Westcott, General Manager.

Community leaders
To better serve its mining customers, The Bucket Shop’s manufacturing facility includes the massive CNC pattern cutter, 27 welding stations, 10 cranes, and a fully equipped machine shop, and the company is presently involved in a 20,000 square foot expansion including a maintenance facility, warehouse, abrasive blasting and two paint booths.

TBS’s expansion was endorsed by Timmins Mayor George Pirie. “The Bucket Shop is a great example of the quality partners we have in the City of Timmins,” the Mayor said in a statement, praising the 100 employee-strong business.

“They’re a local firm, obviously, that has decided to grow in Timmins and build their new expanded facilities in Timmins. They have got a great business there and we want to ensure they continue to grow… they are a great corporate citizen. It’s a pleasure to have them in the community.”

Working for people and impacting the skilled labour shortage
With staff ranging from welders and millwrights to office workers, TBS faces the challenges of many similar industries, namely constrained supply of skilled personnel in the trades.

This is especially problematic in Northern Ontario, which is seeing a declining population and an aging workforce, with many young people choosing to migrate to bigger cities. To address this, TBS is taking steps to spur new interest in the skilled trades and is partnering with the local Indigenous people.

Working, as it does, with the reserves and First Nations of Northern Ontario, The Bucket Shop was approached last year by Aboriginal Women in Mining (now Keepers of the Circle), which works with companies in the mining sector to generate training initiatives. A partnership was created between the two groups to build a training centre for Aboriginal women to expose them to the industry. This July heralded the fourth group of women to graduate from a welding curriculum provided by the Canadian Welding Bureau (CWB).

Pouw is proud of the program he was charged to oversee. “We proved the success of that pilot project, and I think it’s a great way to take an underrepresented group, build a skilled trade ability, and keep them in the mining sector to help with today’s labour challenge,” he says.

With a focus on both products and people, The Bucket Shop continues to expand, and looks forward to developing a new, highly skilled workforce in Timmins to complement its successful line of wear products and services. According to Westcott, “Our recent expansion, continued product development and investment into training opportunities are all part of our overall strategy to ensure sustainability in an extremely competitive marketplace.”

The post Growing to Meet Global Demand<p class="company">The Bucket Shop</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Over the years, Harris has evolved into making balers for myriad purposes including the handling of ferrous (containing iron) and non-ferrous metals, fiber based commodities, plastics, garbage, and more. Today, it is best known for producing large shears, ferrous and non-ferrous balers, shredders, and generally, for producing machines of high quality with longevity better measured in decades rather than years.

Even after such a long time as an active business, the company is still undergoing change. In 2014, Harris was acquired by Avis Industrial Corporation, an Indiana-based business with a long track record of buying manufacturers and investing significantly in them. Before this, Harris had spent a good three decades being owned by private equity groups. Later that same year, Avis purchased one of Harris’ competitors, IPS (International Press & Shear), bringing the companies together and investing in the infrastructure, processes, and equipment of both.

Harris has also grown greatly in recent decades with sales and support to over 40 countries around the globe. The company provides sales, service, and support to the UK and Europe through its offices just outside of London in Tewkesbury.

When it comes to the company’s continued accomplishments, King is quick to credit the transparent relationship that Harris management has with its production employees. Both groups spend much time openly discussing performance, challenges, and the workers’ role in the company’s success, with special attention paid to providing feedback to the production labor force to improve development and facilitate cross-training between skills.

The company is dedicated to investing heavily in its employees because, as King describes, those people are the heart of Harris. During the economic downturn caused by global COVID-19 measures, Harris operated as an essential business and did its part to embrace proper screening and sanitation procedures which helped to bolster the company’s strong relationship with its labor force, one that continues today amid less-than-ideal circumstances.

Similarly, King stresses that communication is top at the list of what goes into positive lasting relationships with both the company’s people and suppliers. It is always important to communicate expectations to a supplier and to hold them accountable while, in turn, demonstrating loyalty to them through difficult times.

As a global supplier, Harris manufactures all its hydraulic components as well as doing all its machining and milling without relying on international suppliers for such things. He is quick to tout that the company does not outsource its components and “pretend to be a manufacturer,” unlike some of its competitors which he describes as more akin to distributors or “assemblers.” And Harris proudly stands behind its products.

“We spend a lot of time focusing on cost structure,” King admits, “but [the company] has aligned [itself] with key suppliers that can weather a lot of cycles and step up for us as we step up for them.”

The year 2020 started positively for Harris with opportunities and activity supported by a strong backlog of work. But the company began to see its customers changing patterns of maintenance and upkeep or altogether pausing on capital programs, signifying a big change coming.

After this point, 2020 became significantly more difficult worldwide, but King is confident that Harris remains the strongest manufacturer in the space, with far more resilience than its competition; in fact, Harris has not furloughed any of its employees nor has it shortened its production schedules, ably working through the challenges of the year, well prepared to continue delivering the level of commitment its customers expect.

Aside from these challenges, King notes an ongoing shift in the recycled commodities market, with exports already having changed dramatically domestically in the past year due to trade wars and capacity rationalization in the metal, plastics, and paper industries.

Aside from the unique challenges brought on this year, Harris often sees itself with a lot of competition in its market. King cites “a dozen or so,” participants currently in the two-ram baler market that produce a lighter and lower-cost products than Harris but do not boast the same lifecycle or reliability, as a properly maintained Harris machine should last multiple years longer than its competition. He admits that the company is constantly fighting the fact that it provides higher value over low cost. He is also aware that it is providing an engineered solution to a customer’s opportunity, meaning that instead of offering “an inferior product with pretty colors.”

When looking at the rest of the year and beyond, Harris’s foremost plan is to ensure that its customers can operate effectively with its equipment regardless of what their specific challenges may be. King sees Harris as breaking the mold of the traditional manufacturer model and giving customers a very strong after-sales support matrix. In certain cases, the company has even sent Harris employees to customer locations to operate the equipment personally if the customer lacked manpower due to quarantine measures. The company will also maintain its ability to respond quickly to needs in the market as they arise, spending time pre-building machinery to shorten lead times so that months can be shortened to weeks or even days.

Harris believes in building long-term relationships with its clients, investing heavily in them before and after the sale to “be everything to every customer to keep them operating,” according to King. This approach has paid off in spades for the company which sees high repeat business from customers who continue to choose Harris annually, with some companies having buying from Harris for three to four generations and counting.

Having been around for over 130 years, Harris has gamely adapted to countless tough situations in the market. King recalls how during World War II, Harris manufactured munitions and machine gun components; during the recession of the 1970s, the company pivoted to building structures for outfits like NASA.

King is firm on the company’s approach: “We love strong competition, customers, and suppliers…we are continuously working to have the strongest team in the industry, [and] we’re committed to producing the highest value product in the marketplace.” Competition in the industry will come and go, but based on its longevity and continued approach, Harris is here to stay.

The post Celebrating Over a Century of Dedicated Service<p class="company">Harris </p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Discovered in the spectrum of the Sun’s corona by French astronomer Pierre Janssen in 1868, helium was later named after helios – the Greek word for sun – by British chemist Edward Frankland and British astronomer Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer.

The second element on the periodic table, helium (He) is one of seven ‘noble’ gases on the table. The lightest of all gases except for hydrogen, helium shares many other of hydrogen’s properties (it’s odourless, colorless, and tasteless) with one enormous exception: helium is completely non-flammable.

The notorious flammability of hydrogen tragically brought the Depression-era dream of luxury dirigible air travel to a halt with the explosion and fiery crash of the Hindenburg in New Jersey on May 6, 1937. While there are many theories about the cause of the fire, one thing is certain: if the Hindenburg had been using helium, it would not have burnt.

A gas of many uses
Chemically inert, helium is the hardest gas to liquefy, which makes it ideal for many applications, including as a refrigerant. When it is cooled to just below its boiling point of -452 degrees Fahrenheit (-269 degrees Celsius), liquid helium becomes helium II.

Also known as a superfluid, it takes on a jaw-dropping ability to flow without friction. In other words, if you spin it around in a cup it will keep spinning… and spinning… and spinning, and can literally climb up and over the edge of containers. With no freezing point and zero viscosity, it can seep through the tiniest cracks.

Given its many unique properties, helium is in growing demand, and governments and research laboratories are among the biggest consumers of the noble gas.

Along with liquid nitrogen, one of helium’s biggest applications – in liquid form – is in cryogenics. Defined by Merriam-Webster as “a branch of physics that deals with the production and effects of very low temperatures,” cryogenics has many uses: In the food industry, it helps keep food fresher longer without the addition of preservatives or chemicals. In the space industry, cryoelectronics are used to make rocket fuel, and for electrons to move more freely. In medicine, cryosurgery is used to freeze and destroy skin tumours, while cryobiology can preserve organs, cells, and embryos.

From rocketry to welding
With about 92 percent of the lifting power of hydrogen and none of the risks of explosion, helium is found in high-risk industries such as the space sector and welding.

Regularly used to stiffen rockets, helium has been used for autogenous pressurization on the Space Shuttle, where it pressurizes liquid propellants. Being stable and non-reactive, it is ideal for arc-welding light metals, including magnesium and aluminum.

After hydrogen, helium is the second-most abundant element in the universe. Despite this, it is rare here on Earth, with much of it extracted, along with natural gas, from the Hugoton Gas Field which extends across Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Compressed and shipped in small quantities in steel cylinders, helium can also be transported in insulated containers in liquid form.

Despite its many uses in science, medicine, industry and the space sector, America’s private natural gas companies were not required to recover helium freed as a by-product of their activities between 1973 and 1980, nor did the U.S. government store it during that period, with billions of cubic feet lost every year. This was surprising, considering the Helium Act of 1925, “An Act Authorizing the conservation, production, and exploitation of helium gas, a mineral resource pertaining to the national defense, and to the development of commercial aeronautics, and for other purposes.”

Amended several times over the years, the Helium Privatization Act of 1996 was controversial, ordering the American government to sell a good part of the National Helium Reserve – a reserve of over 1 billion cubic meters of helium gas. Critics called it a fiasco, with the sale price far lower than the gas’s market price. Despite the criticism, the bill wasn’t amended until 2013.

Increasingly rare on Earth
The world is running out of its supplies of helium, and the situation will affect much more than just birthday balloons. (Although last year, with helium in short supply, many party-supply stores ran out of the gas, while others increased prices up to 135 percent.)

This shortage is not good news for the planet’s medical, scientific, and space sectors, since helium is vital to cooling Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) superconducting magnets used in making solar cells, in supersonic wind tunnels, rocket engines, and many other applications.

This shortage has led to the genuine possibility of looking to outer space for Earth’s helium supply. Over 30 years ago, it was estimated that the surface regolith (loose soil, dust and rocks) on the moon contains a million tons of helium-3. As challenging and costly as mining the moon would be, scientists from the University of Wisconsin’s Institute of Fusion Technology have been investigating pros and cons.

With the potential of being used as a nuclear fusion fuel source, it was determined that “mining it would be a profitable undertaking: the energy produced by the helium-3 would be 250 times greater than that needed to extract this resource from the Moon and transport it to Earth, where the lunar reserves of helium-3 could supply human needs for centuries,” according to a March 2019 article by OpenMind.

Discovered in 1939, helium-3 has been eyed as a source of energy for years, particularly in nuclear fusion. Although requiring extremely high temperatures, helium-3 atoms can release significant energy without making other materials radioactive.

One of the reasons for the scarcity of helium-3 on Earth is, ironically, what protects us, namely our atmosphere. Absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, the Earth’s atmosphere is approximately 300 miles (480 kilometers) thick, becoming much thinner the higher we go, and eventually disappearing. The moon does not possess a similar shielding atmosphere, and throughout its existence has absorbed tremendous amounts of helium-3.

As with all proposals of mining in space, harvesting helium-3 from the moon presents many challenges, and will require plenty of expertise – and money.

Taking mining to the Moon
The European Space Agency (ESA) – an intergovernmental body consisting of 22 member states – and ArianeGroup, “as prime contractor of a consortium of ArianeGroup, Space Application Services and PTScientists,” signed an agreement to study and make ready ESA’s planned in-space, in-situ resource-use (ISRU) mission.

While focused on the moon’s regolith, the mission will gather, process, store, and use “materials found or produced on other celestial bodies (Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc.) to replace materials that would otherwise be brought from Earth,” according to privately-held Berlin-based Planetary Transportation Systems GmbH (PTS).

Describing itself as a new-space company, PTS’s “aim is to bring down the cost of space exploration and democratize access to the Moon.” To achieve its goal, the company is dedicated to developing dependable systems that will get payloads to the right locations, and has created a spacecraft that can deliver two rovers (up to 300 kg or 661 lbs. of payload) to the moon’s barren surface.

Like other space mining proposals which see minerals used on planets to sustain human life (iron, titanium, aluminum and others on Mars, for example), helium-3 would be transported to Earth, and used on the moon to support people and mining machinery.

As well as Europe, other countries, including India, have expressed an interest in mining the moon. And as our supply of helium dwindles, the greater the likelihood becomes that the harvesting of other planets for helium will become a reality in the very near future.

The post Harnessing Helium<p class="company">Challenges, Opportunities, and Moon Shots</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The group became the parent organization for companies such as Specialized Maintenance Equipment (SME), a tool manufacturer and solutions provider for the international mining industry.

Marketing Coordinator for the NMT Group, Heather Johnston, recalls that in 2017 the original owner of Specialized Maintenance Equipment was having trouble keeping up with the demand for heavy-duty safety equipment in the mining industry. He reached out to Elliot for support and resources at that time, and the NMT Group immediately saw potential in SME, acquiring it soon after to expand its product offerings.

Vice President Richard DeRuiter remembers that when SME was first obtained, a diesel-powered jack was being developed: the SLT220. The NMT Group aided SME in developing and building two units and put them to work at high altitudes in the Andes in Peru. Based on what was learned from the diesel units, the path forward was to develop a similar product using battery power, as the industry slowly moved toward electric vehicles.

The next line of jacking systems after this, including the company’s signature Titan220e, was developed with battery power. Johnston has observed that over the past century, mining has transformed rapidly as production rates continually increase and trucks are larger than ever imagined.

Mine sites usually operate continuously, in extreme climates, so routine maintenance of these giant earthmoving machines is essential; however, the maintenance performed in the off-the-road trucking industry is both time-consuming and dangerous. There are numerous risks during the truck lifting process from lifting using jack extensions, running pneumatic hoses, placing additional safety stands, lateral loads, and falling debris. SME has developed products to provide better safety for the industry.

Johnston believes that the people working with SME have made it the company it is today. “We have a team of passionate individuals that have been developing their expertise in mechatronics for over thirty years,” she says. “They are driven by results and have the proven ability to identify breakthrough business opportunities in the industry.”

The companies in the NMT Group – including NMT itself, SME, and Schalke Locomotives GmbH – often collaborate with a team of experts from places like Germany and Chile. This gives the group the know-how to provide outside-the-box solutions that benefit safety, productivity, and the environment within the mining industry.

Johnston feels that the company’s customer service, plus its training and commissioning on the Titan220e, are some of its strong points. “When someone comes with a problem, they are grateful that they are being listened to,” she says. The company is passionate about eliminating risks in the industry and keeps a list of solutions that it is excited to provide to the industry.

DeRuiter says the company always does the legwork necessary to confirm that its products and components are of top quality and will be “as trouble-free as possible,” for its valued clients. Much time is spent speaking to the end-user who may be having challenges with existing technology and determining what they are looking for from a specific piece of equipment. For example, a great deal of research was done on the Titan220e to determine where an original equipment manufacturer’s lift points were, so that the Titan220e could lift trucks from these points instead of inappropriate sections. Johnston adds that, as part of the New Product Development process, all SME prototypes are tested in-field at a company facility in the western U.S. to see how they react under the conditions of the mining sector before being sent to the customer.

SME also fills two distinct roles in the supplier relationship: first, as a supplier to the end-user, where quality after-sales service and support are critical and can “make or break any company,” according to DeRuiter; second, it works very hard with suppliers to set up agreements in which there is no need for shopping around.

Supplier relationships are established early in any given agreement so that purchase orders can be issued. This is important in the mining industry because of the repetitive nature of manufacturing. SME works closely with the suppliers of its necessary tool components like batteries, drives, and control systems and researches them thoroughly. DeRuiter affirms that the company puts a lot of effort into the process, and this has paid off in spades thus far.

Heather Johnston notes that keeping up with the demand for new products in the industry is the biggest challenge currently facing SME and companies like it. The risks in the mining maintenance industry are not going away; the company must prioritize what solutions it can provide with the time and the people it has. The NMT Group leadership team holds a kick-off meeting to validate what is needed and adds time and people accordingly for each solution.

One member of the SME leadership stands out for his contributions. Global Product and Innovation Manager Wayne Desormeau is described by DeRuiter as a passionate and intelligent person who is recognized in the off-the-road (OTR) trucking industry. He has a “sixth sense for what the industry needs,” and his time with the company has been especially appreciated. Desormeau will be speaking at the Off-The-Road Tire Conference put on by the Tire Industry Association in Palm Springs, California this year.

DeRuiter confirms that SME will continue its focus on the production phase of the Titan220e for the remainder of 2020. It will also be developing two new products: a jack called the Atlas which is similar to the Titan but single-lift and smaller and a much larger piece of equipment which is currently in the preliminary stages and will be revealed “when the time is right.”

The Titan220e will also be featured at Mine Expo in Las Vegas in September 2020. It is a packed year for the company as it continues to make strides for the mining industry and further develop its much-needed product line, relying on the efforts of its valued team to keep it at the top of its game.

The post Bringing First-Rate Safety Solutions to the Mining Industry<p class="company">The NMT Group</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Since the late 1990s, Flex Energy Solutions has been manufacturing gas turbine generators for the oil and gas, biogas, and combined heat and power (CHP) markets in virtually every part of the globe. The company offers power solutions that help reduce costs and improve energy resiliency while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The company has turbines and heat exchangers on the job all over the world, including North and South America, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Canada. Its power generators can run on “virtually any fuel that comes out of the ground, and even synthetic fuel,” according to Chief Executive Officer Mark Schnepel, and Flex Energy Solutions staff are proud to be part of an industry that powers society.

Power for industrial or commercial operations is often required in extremely remote locations. The company offers a number of solutions for grid-connected and grid-isolated power as well as options for CHP and biogas applications.

Cogeneration, or CHP, is a process in which turbines generate electrical power while using the turbine exhaust for heat. In traditional grid electricity generation, the resulting heat is usually lost into the atmosphere. Flex Turbines®, however, use the resulting heat for heating, cooling, dehumidification, and other processes, which in turn maximizes efficiency.

Grid-isolated (off-grid) power means any location can be powered by the company’s turbines. Because Flex Turbines can run on virtually any fuel, Flex’s customers enjoy best-in-class fuel flexibility. The Flex Turbine is one of the cleanest technologies available and can even help reduce emissions from the site.

Flex Turbines can also operate parallel to the utility grid (grid-parallel) and excel in areas with unpredictable power. The turbine runs at base power while connected to the electrical grid until a utility interruption occurs. Upon interruption, the Flex Turbine will automatically disconnect from the grid and keep the customer’s site operational until the utility source is restored.

Biogas applications run on fuels that would otherwise be flared or vented. The Flex Turbine is the most fuel flexible technology on the market, able to run on natural gas, propane, biogas, associated gas, and tank vapors. It can even use landfill gasses and digester gasses. This type of fuel flexibility makes Flex Turbines one of the go-to power generators for many industries.

Flex Turbines provide more than just energy savings. “Our turbines only require one scheduled eight-hour maintenance per year, which is a big improvement over other, more traditional types of power sources, such as reciprocating or diesel engines,” said Schnepel. “Additionally, other technologies require much more extensive fuel conditioning and cleanup, so we’re one of the most practical and fuel flexible pieces of equipment available.”

Schnepel said the leasing of equipment has become a huge part of Flex Energy Solutions’ business model, and the company strives for excellence in that area as well. “Leasing goes hand in hand with service,” he said. “Our sales team and our Applications Engineering team work together with customers to ensure that they receive the correct equipment for their application. Then we monitor it 24/7 to ensure it’s operating as designed and expected.”

Schnepel is proud of the quality Flex Energy Solutions provides. “We just had a major cold snap on a site in Alberta where we have equipment operating, and there were no issues at all. Everything just kept working as it should,” he said. “Meanwhile, the same turbines can also operate in places like Texas, where there is not only extreme heat but excessive amounts of dust as well. You don’t get that level of service from reciprocating engines or diesel generators or any of the older technology, and we’re really pleased to offer that level of quality and reliability.”

Every project teaches the company something new that it can apply to improve future systems. Each unique environment teaches Flex Energy Solutions about how its products can best serve parts of the world that experience extreme weather, heat, cold, salt, or dust. Even sound can be an issue, as the company found in Pennsylvania.

Near an area designated as national forest, a Flex Energy Solutions customer needed a pipeline compressor that had to operate at a very low decibel level to meet the requirements of working in the vicinity of a national forest.

“We had to engineer a low-sound package that met that goal,” said Schnepel. “It was a big challenge at first, but we solved it, and now we have that in our options list. Every opportunity presents a learning experience, and it was rewarding to be able to solve that issue and make it available for other customers.”

He said evolving products over time has served Flex Energy Solutions well. Each generation of equipment gets better – more efficient, stronger, and with better performance for customers.

Flex is even developing power systems for the cannabis industry. It helped create a mobile hemp drying unit to be used by commercial hemp growers.

Last year Flex Energy Solutions received a significant repeat order for multiple turbine units in California. The purchase will give that customer the capability to generate a combined 4.3 megawatts of power. The turbines will provide a baseload to the smart grid systems at three of the customer’s facilities and will reduce operating costs with CHP solutions.

The future is looking bright for Flex Energy Solutions. Schnepel said more and more people are adopting this technology as a way of cutting greenhouse gas emissions for their businesses. Flex Turbines are now becoming part of bigger solutions, whether in the form of micro-grids fed by solar and/or wind power, or along with existing larger grids.

“As major storms and wildfires become more prevalent, people will be relying more and more on self-generating their own grids. The small gas turbine will play a critical role in that evolution from centralized power grids to less centralized power locations.”

Flex Turbines are modular and considered ‘plug and play.’ It is not unusual to see multiple turbines connected on some job sites, depending on the customer’s needs. A wastewater authority celebrated the grand opening of a recently upgraded resource recovery plant in Bellaire, Ohio. The facility is fully powered by a Flex Turbine that converts gasses from their digesters into electricity, making the plant energy neutral. Flex Energy Solutions also helped an Australian company create an innovative thermal energy storage solution for converting biogas into storable heat that can be used to generate high-quality, reliable electric power.

Twenty-year company veteran Schnepel said he is also excited about some new technology Flex will be introducing later this year that he said will set a new high watermark for the turbine industry. “I’m proud of our company on so many levels,” said Schnepel. “Every time we build something, whenever we send something out, it makes me smile.”

The post Flexing the Power Muscles<p class="company">Flex Energy Solutions</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Specializing in the mining, wastewater and aggregate industries, Westpro Machinery both designs and manufactures process equipment for a variety of projects globally, along with providing other services such as installation supervision, commissioning, and process and equipment auditing. The company employs a highly trained team of chemical and mechanical engineers, metallurgists and plant designers with expertise in designing processes for zinc, gold, copper, silver, nickel, lithium, diamond and graphite production, among numerous others.

Westpro President John Atkinson started the company in 1985, but showed an interest in the industry at a much younger age.

“I got involved with processing in Grade 7 when I did a flotation separation of copper for a science fair,” he says. “Unfortunately, the guy who made a volcano won.”

Atkinson was also always interested in machinery, and following university, he started a business in Vancouver, buying and selling mineral processing plants. He also did extensive reconditioning of machinery before moving into remanufacturing – completely stripping down machinery and building it up using new components, before sending it out with a full warranty.

“We started to realize the industry was changing in a lot of ways with regards to used equipment,” he says.

With the advent of the internet, customers could now go directly to a site to find machinery. Shop development also meant they were producing 60 to 80 percent new machinery, so Atkinson felt Westpro could go the extra step and start designing and manufacturing its own machinery, giving the company a better future.

“We ended up designing and manufacturing new, but we still did some reconditioning. Then we started to drop off the reconditioning and focused on new machinery,” he says. “We did new machinery and developed a product line. Basically, our approach was to develop a very extensive line so we could provide a complete plant and process.”

Atkinson ended up building one product at a time and supplying it, before expanding the product lines. Some of those lines developed by themselves, such as attrition scrubbers and thickeners, and Westpro went along with it, says Atkinson.

“These are very large thickeners, and we went turnkey on them,” says Atkinson. “Some of these thickeners can have 500 to 800 tons of steel, with a very large tank and understructure. So we would build it and supply it, and also do the install and commission. We started to develop more into those, and that took us into tailings management.”

Everything progressed from there, he says, necessitating a move from Vancouver to Ontario for production requirements. Westpro now has production in Ontario, engineering in Vernon, BC, and a new office opening in Vancouver.

“My wife was involved in the very beginning, and then we had a family, and now I have some of my kids back in the business,” says Atkinson. Daughter Marisa is the Sales and Marketing Coordinator, and son Stephen is the Engineering Coordinator. “That gives us a whole new, fresh look.” Marisa is opening the office in Vancouver by herself, and pushing forward with new development through that location, Atkinson explains.

Growth is a continual process for Westpro, with a number of exciting plans in the works, including global expansion. “We have a global reach through the industry,” says Atkinson. A lot of Westpro’s machinery is sold globally. “What we want to do is establish offices in the U.S. and Mexico, where we do a lot of work.” Westpro also has plans for expansion in South America and Australia.

The company’s 35th anniversary is on the horizon as well, competing for attention with an upcoming trade show in Vancouver and MINExpo in Las Vegas in September, so celebrations remain up in the air. “There are a number of things we want to look at doing for the employees,” shares Atkinson.

He places a heavy emphasis on the important role employees play in the daily functioning of Westpro, and how a family feel has been generated over the years. “You go through different stages, and right now it’s a family type business, which I never thought it would be,” he says. “At the Puslinch [Ontario] location we have a great group of people who all get along and have a good time. We really try to provide them with a good work environment and as much training as we can to keep them at a high level.”

Putting employees first is imperative for Atkinson, who believes a positive work environment creates quality workmanship and a sense of camaraderie. “Those are the sorts of things that matter,” he says. “You’ve got a lot of hardships that go on throughout the company and different challenges, and then you’re there in your shop and everybody’s really enjoying it, having a good laugh and putting out some really good quality machinery. So it feels like a big family.”

That level of comfort starts with the managers and trickles down to the employees, he says, and it makes a positive impact. “We put out good products and have a great relationship with our employees. We might be split up in locations, but we have a lot of good communication. One of the strong points of the company is from within – how everyone works together.”

That cooperation and collaboration allows Westpro to take on challenges presented by its customers, who often need complex projects completed quickly. According to Atkinson, about 90 percent of the machines the company designs are customized to client requirements, and Westpro is more than up to the challenge.

“Customers come to us with a project, we get everyone up to speed and everyone immediately gets to work. Having our own production allows us to take projects on and provide them in a very timely manner. Where other larger companies with more bureaucracy might take 10 months, we’re going to push that through in four months.”

It’s always an interesting challenge for the team, but one they’re set up for, he says. “That’s kind of our niche I think – customization and quick delivery. It’s never dull here, and there are always new challenges every day, that’s for sure.”

Westpro also works diligently with customers to provide the latest technology for their processes, including enduring, heavy duty machinery. “The beauty of our machinery is that everything lasts a long time with less maintenance,” and this is something customers appreciate. The team’s latest approach is reaching out more to customers who have been running Westpro machines for a number of years, providing them with any available upgrades, improvements in instrumentation, monitoring and optimizing processes.

Westpro continues to set its standards high, recently supplying a turnkey thickener on time and under budget. “That was proof that the company could pull everything together – from my process people, to our production, to our project management, and finally back around to our process people doing the final commissioning and startup of the machine.”

Atkinson has come to appreciate the fact that mineral processing is a true specialty, and one not many companies in Canada undertake, particularly in the mineral processing equipment field.

“We’re a small Canadian company,” he says. “There’s a lot of development through Canada, but the specialty has been the processing. Our competition is very large companies out of Europe which have government ownership in them… We’re a small guy, but we specialize in mineral processing in Canada.”

Westpro is now moving into the environmental aspect of processing, which Atkinson deems a “perfect thing” for Westpro, a segue into the environmental side of mining and water treatment.

“It’s a real movement forward, and without question, there’s a big need for it,” he says of employing environmentally friendly practices that protect the earth. “All these mines can absolutely operate this way; they just need to do it, and it’s going to happen.”

Atkinson is looking to add a tailing system to help eliminate tailing ponds, installing thickeners along with filters. “We’re trying to work more on those sorts of things for the environment. From there we also have other areas we’re involved in, which stemmed originally from mining, including water treatment systems and wastewater.”

Those are just some of areas Westpro is looking forward to in the next number of years. This includes really looking at taking that mineral processing knowledge they’ve acquired and making improvements.

“That’s our approach and our forward thinking in our company,” he says. “’How can we do things better in the future and have more control over anything that’s discharged from mining?’ That’s something we’re very into now, using those processes. Things are changing and that comes from the younger generation in my family. It’s very interesting and is moving us into an exciting area.”

Using technology for new development and change is paramount for Westpro, as the company embraces any process that can make a positive difference.

“Anything that’s coming out, you can scrub it and put out clean air,” for example. “If you have a process and you need to clean the air, we have the wet scrubbers. These are all great areas of development.”

Indeed, this environmental side of the business is where Westpro hopes to make a difference now and into the future – and it’s a difference all companies can make if they choose to follow Westpro’s lead.

“It’s about making it clean,” Atkinson says. “You do whatever you need to do, but any of your discharges need to be clean. It can be done! Do the process, do the mining, get the copper, get the gold; you need those things, but your discharges should be clean – and they can be.”

According to Atkinson, that’s the complete, holistic system Westpro is looking to develop: expertise in clean environmental solutions.

“That’s our passion now. The technology is there, it just needs to be applied each time. You have to have some passion to stay in this business, and it’s still there for us. We’re having fun and it’s always challenging.”

The post Environmental Passion Drives Westpro Machinery<p class="company">Westpro Machinery Inc.</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The Richmond, British Columbia-based company started with an energy-efficient desalination technology that the chief executive officer had developed, and the industrial sector soon became the obvious direction for Saltworks because that is where it could make the biggest impact with its technology. In an industrial setting, water can be more technically challenging to treat as a result of potential contaminants and the tightening regulations of how companies must manage, treat, and dispose of wastewater. Saltworks has brought to market novel technologies that helps its customers navigate these issues using less energy and at a lower cost.

Working closely with a broad range of industrial customers over the years has enabled Saltworks to develop both expertise and an understanding of the many unique issues that those customers face. Its original desalination technology was a combination of electrochemical and thermal technology, but since then its offerings have expanded to include a range of products for diverse applications.

While sharpening its skill set and adapting to the market over the course of its twelve-year journey, Saltworks has produced a diverse portfolio of innovative water treatment technologies. “We now have multiple products that do different things, allowing us to deliver end-to-end solutions or unit processes for integration into a customer’s overall treatment infrastructure. All of our products incorporate intelligent automation, modular design, and advanced process engineering that provide treatment capabilities and lower total cost than conventional methods,” explained Joshua Zoshi, President of Saltworks Technologies.

Generally, industrial customers have two primary wastewater treatment needs. The first is to reduce the volume of the wastewater to lower disposal costs, and the second is to achieve regulatory compliance, which may also entail volume reduction or removing contaminants from the waste. A third, less common objective is retrieving any valuable material from the wastewater. In mining operations as an example, there might be minerals of value within the wastewater, and the customer will want to extract these. Saltworks is an expert in helping clients overcome these challenges, with approximately forty patents in different areas of the market to provide solutions for complex industrial wastewater.

Saltworks’ flagship products include BrineRefine, a smart chemical softening system, XtremeRO, an advanced reverse osmosis platform, and the SaltMaker, a modern evaporator-crystallizer.

BrineRefine is an intelligently automated chemical softening system. Its key advantage over conventional chemical softening is the ability to adapt to changing wastewater chemistry – a challenge in many industrial applications. It does this by measuring water chemistry and adjusting chemical dosing in real time. This reduces chemical usage, generates less waste sludge, and better protects downstream equipment from scaling. BrineRefine reduces cost and improves treatment reliability in any industry with scaling wastewaters.

XtremeRO is Saltworks’ innovative solution for reducing volume of saline wastewater, or brine. It is based on reverse osmosis, the most widely used desalination technology. However, unlike traditional reverse osmosis, it can concentrate brine to much higher levels and can treat waters with high levels of organics. XtremeRO is therefore ideal for volume reduction of oil and gas produced waters, landfill leachate, food processing wastewater, and other challenging sources.

The SaltMaker product line at Saltworks is made up of modern evaporator crystallizers that further reduce the volume of the wastewater using a novel humidification-dehumidification process. “The SaltMaker was designed from the ground up as a more reliable alternative to traditional evaporators and crystallizers. It will take virtually any wastewater and reduce its volume for much lower cost disposal. It can even squeeze all of the water out, reducing everything else down to a solid,” said Zoshi. The SaltMaker can use waste heat to reduce energy consumption. It also has advanced self-cleaning systems that prevent scaling, corrosion-proof non-metallic materials, and a highly modular design, all of which combine to provide leading reliability for challenging minimal liquid discharge (MLD) or zero liquid discharge (ZLD) applications.

The SaltMaker MultiEffect version of the technology uses a highly energy efficient process that recycles heat internally. This makes it ideal for MLD or ZLD applications with high energy costs, such as remote locations that must ship in diesel. Saltworks sold a treatment plant to a remote mine operating near the subarctic that required an extremely efficient solution.

“They are dewatering their mine, and because it’s so far north, they can’t put that water into a tailings pond. They have to treat it at the mine and then discharge the freshwater directly into the subarctic environment, so it was a very challenging application with really tough environmental regulations,” said Zoshi. Using Saltworks’ systems, customers with particularly problematic situations can operate sustainably and cleanly, and maintain compliance with environmental standards.

The SaltMaker AirBreather is a more recent variation of the SaltMaker MultiEffect. It is a higher capacity version that is well suited to treating waters with volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

“Where the AirBreather really shines is that the water being evaporated never directly contacts the atmosphere, so VOCs are safely managed. This is an industry first,” explained Zoshi.

The company tagline at Saltworks is ‘Treating the Toughest Water.’ If a customer can use some type of conventional technology to treat their wastewater, then that is likely the most economic option. However, Saltworks is the answer in cases where customers have difficult-to-treat desalination and wastewater treatment scenarios or have exhausted the more typical alternatives and are not seeing the results they would like.

By focusing its effort on the toughest challenges, the company has built an expert team with unparalleled experience. Saltworks employs roughly seventy people who are dedicated and passionate about delivering solutions for industrial wastewater. The highly technical group is made up of scientists and engineers, and because the company’s entire operation is in-house, it also has a talented team of builders. From research and development to full-scale plant assembly, this is a collaborative effort.

“We all come to work looking forward to solving some of these really challenging problems that the world is facing. And having the opportunity to build some very innovative technology and get it out into the field and actually have it provide benefits to customers,” Zoshi expressed.

Over the years, Saltworks has received recognition from the Canadian Federal Government as well as the British Columbia and Alberta Provincial Governments through technology development grants. As a clean technology company that is focused on water and energy conservation, it is grateful to be located in a country with supportive environmental programs that encourage a real effort toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Going forward, the company hopes to expand into adjacent industrial sectors where it believes its systems can help. For example, because of the usefulness of natural gas as a transitional fuel source between oil and renewable energy, the company is anticipating growth in this industry.

Natural gas extraction releases highly saline water that was originally in the ground. This “produced water” can be reused for further extraction, but when activity slows in an area, the water must be disposed of. Produced water volumes are substantial, and since disposal costs are high in some regions, such as the Marcellus, there is an opportunity to reduce its volume via onsite treatment. Saltworks has the expertise to help those companies reduce their produced water volume and make it easier and more cost-effective to manage.

Saltworks is also advancing technology for the lithium mining sector. Lithium is typically transported to a remote facility to be refined after being extracted from the ground. Moving the raw material to the refining plant is an expensive step in the process. In partnership with another company, Saltworks can provide these operations with technology that enables them to refine the lithium at the mining site, significantly reducing their overhead and improving the profitability of the customer.

Another application is treating for polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Released In 2019, a film titled Dark Waters, starring Mark Ruffalo, told the story of a major scandal related to this class of chemical compounds that are extremely dangerous to human health, and are often found in landfill runoff. PFAS is in many household items from carpet to no-stick cookware and is a so-called ‘forever chemical’ because it tends to stay around.

Saltworks is anticipating upcoming regulations related to these compounds and expects that treating wastewater in this area will become a major opportunity to positively impact the health of affected people.

“We’re excited for the future. It almost seems like every month we come across a new inquiry from some industry somewhere in the world. It’s definitely a changing landscape, and we are committed to developing and delivering innovative and economic solutions that enable industries to successfully manage their wastewater.”

The post Delivering Solutions for Challenging Industrial Wastewater<p class="company">Saltworks Technologies</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

“We’ve since cultivated the culture of applying science to meet the technology needs of our growing industry,” says President Bryce Conway. “We engage with production companies and become a true extension of their own efforts.”

“As a technology focused company, we put a lot of effort into our laboratory testing and research and we try to rely on that to provide new solutions, new technologies that are not currently available in the market,” says Flex-Chem Senior Scientist, Scott Bailey, PhD. The company invests a considerable amount of revenue into research and development each year and boasts its own Technology Center, a state of the art facility where the team works to develop effective and economic solutions to clients’ needs.

The Center’s expert technical team has experience in a wide range of disciplines, including microbiology, biofilms, microbial induced corrosion (MIC), field inspections of corroding structures, water analysis, analytical and physical chemistry. These scientists are equipped to handle everything from flow assurance research to custom formulation, process development and the testing of oilfield biological/chemical products. In addition, the team works closely with the University of Oklahoma Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and consults with Dr. Steven Foster, the university’s Mass Spectrometry Facility Director.

With offices in Weatherford, Oklahoma, Edmond, Oklahoma and Pecos, Texas, Flex-Chem is in the center of the action, and possesses several U.S. and international patents in frac water treatment and production enhancement fluids and additives. “Our location in the midcontinent area and Permian Basin has given us access to key markets and strategic insights into technology needs and opportunities of the industry,” Conway says. “Notably, Flex-Chem led the industry in identifying a type of damage caused to shale formations by completion fluids.” In response, the company developed its patented OptaSTIM® technology, which remediates the negative impact of introduced fluids on well performance. “OptaSTIM® has been successfully applied to the midcontinent area for the exponential production improvement of over 700 wells to date,” Conway says.

The team recognized the need for a solution in 2012, when they noticed that wells in the Woodford Shale were not living up to initial production promises. “They all had really high IPs [Initial Production],” Conway recalls. But within a year and a half, production plummeted. “Their production all seemed to be going on an exponential decline. We started looking at the properties of the shale and their interaction with the frac fluids and we discovered that there was a damage mechanism that was being created subterranean by the frac fluid.” The team developed OptaSTIM® to counter this skin damage, and the solution has been a runaway success. “Even after these wells are three years old and beyond we can get production above the original IP,” says Conway.

The team’s close relationship with clients helped them create OptaSTIM®. “Our operators brought a description of the problem to us,” Conway remembers. “They had been unsuccessful in finding a solution with other service providers. Working with them in our laboratory, we developed a kind of understanding of the symptoms of the problem and then we used our research to identify what… the problem was, what was causing the restriction in the flow of these wells. And once we were able to understand what was causing the damage, we were able to develop a technology to go and remove that damage and allow the wells to perform more with what the reservoir potential was.”

Flex-Chem is also a lead innovator in water treatment and conditioning for the oil and gas sector. Bailey says there has been an increased need for comprehensive water management strategies in recent years. “A lot of the water use practices really suffered from lack of stability of the water for reuse in completion operations,” he explains. “Flex-Chem developed a process to address some of these challenges. Using our background in biotechnology, we developed a process based on biological oxidation to treat the water, make it more stable for storage and reuse… Once it’s treated, we can prevent undesirable growth of harmful bacteria, we can meet higher quality reuse standards, and we can also provide what we feel is the lowest total water reuse cost in the industry.”

In 2009, Flex-Chem worked with Linn Energy to use this technology on the world’s first frac water recycling facility, located in Wheeler County, Texas. “It was successful,” Conway shares. The solution took off from there and today Flex-Chem’s water recycling technology is used by most of the water recycling facilities in the midcontinent area. “So far, we’ve used our process to treat more than 135 million barrels of water for reuse in the oil and gas industry,” says Bailey. “We believe that’s a significant achievement.”

By working closely with the industry, the team stays abreast of the market’s evolving needs. “Over the last year or so, we’ve noticed that a lot of the operators in the industry have really been doing some retooling and it’s been reflected in the guidance that they’ve given us,” Bailey says. “A lot of their field development plans have been dialed back in large part due to the market conditions.” In response, the team worked to create a solution to meet the logistical requirements of smaller operations. “We identified a need for water conditioning systems that are more flexible, easier to maintain and, of course, at the same time keep our price point down in the same area as we’ve been able to deliver with our large treatment systems,” Bailey says.

The team’s new solution is a portable, multipurpose water-conditioning unit. “It provides broad flexibility for water conditioning and treatment,” Bailey explains. The unit aerates the water to create conditions favorable for biological oxidation, “which is by and large the most cost-effective way to improve the quality and stability of water. It supports chemical amendments and mixing. It has water transfer capabilities and we can use it to provide water quality management throughout the water distribution system.”

Traditionally, mega water recycling facilities with a capacity of 1.5 million barrels or more utilized Flex-Chem’s water recycling technology. Now, with the company’s portable water-conditioning unit, the team can service much smaller operations. “These modular systems have a transportable design that is adaptable really to any pit or tank or water impoundment,” Bailey says. “It’s a very efficient, scalable system, so really it’s applicable to any type of water source.” The team sees a use for the system for everything from treated municipal water to industrial reuse water and well water.

Flex-Chem continues to roll out innovative solutions for the oil and gas industry. Currently, the company is in the process of launching OptaSTIM® E, a frac additive to prevent skin damage from forming. The new product could be utilized by “all the major shale plays across the United States,” says Conway, and the team has begun performing field trials with OptaSTIM® E with promising results.

Flex-Chem is eager to continue leading the market with innovative solutions. To make this happen, the team plans to maintain their close connection with clients. Both OptaSTIM® and the water treatment solutions “are examples of very strong, market demand technologies that were identified through close relationship with our customers,” Bailey says. With those two major accomplishments already under its belt – and strong industry connections firmly in place – Flex-Chem is ready to tackle the next challenge.

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One of two things: you throw it in the garbage, or you recycle it by donating, selling or taking it to a local recycling kiosk or your cell carrier for a buy-back program. Cell Phones for Soldiers uses donated mobile phones to give free talk time to active-duty military and veterans, while the Hope Phones campaign trades in your well-used cell to get new technology for mobile medics in developing countries.

What you decide to do with that phone has a significant impact on the environment, says Michael Collins, President and CEO of eCycle Solutions, a company dedicated to recycling electronic waste, or “e-waste,” and safely disposing of non-reusable parts and materials.

Consumption numbers should come as a wakeup call. The Environmental Protection Agency says that if Americans recycled the roughly 130 million cell phones that are disposed of annually, enough energy would be saved to power more than 24,000 homes in a year, Scientific American reports. And for every million cell phones we recycle, we can recover about 35,000 pounds of copper, 800 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 30 pounds of palladium – conserving those natural resources and the energy and labour required to mine them.

“Before it starts to break down, the metals and plastics can be toxic to the environment or be a potential fire hazard,” Collins says. “And if you stop and think about it, somewhere in your house you’ve got a drawer. And in that drawer are cords and plugs, and maybe an old tablet or an old computer in a closet someplace.”

It’s his business to be concerned about what people and businesses do with the growing amount of e-waste we produce. Because there’s nothing in that smartphone that can’t be repurposed.

eCycle Solutions, headquartered in Ontario, Canada, is an advocate for environmental stewardship, working closely with provincial collection programs and private partners like Best Buy and Staples to collect used electronics. Established in 2005, the company is also a leading provider of what has become an essential industry.

When your office decides to upgrade everyone’s computers and the workhorse printer, for example, eCycle steps in to remove all private data and break down the devices to take out harmful batteries, mercury, toner, ink and leaded glass for use by the company’s processing partners. Depending on the condition of electronics, some may be upcycled to schools or health facilities where there’s a need.

There’s also a huge emphasis on safety for the company’s 500-plus employees. Every mobile device contains lithium ion batteries, which are a fire hazard and explosive in a steel shredder. Advanced fire suppression systems and quality checks in the teardown lines make sure the chemicals can be safely handled and sent for recycling.

Aftermarket parts like steel and precious metals are sold to distributors for manufacturing new products. Palladium, now a highly valued precious metal, is a key component in exhaust systems in vehicles where it helps turn pollutants into less-damaging carbon dioxide and water vapour. It’s also widely used in dentistry, jewellery and, yes, electronics.

Our planet has limited raw materials, and the shift to supporting the circular economy – where long-lasting design, repair, reuse and remanufacturing protects the earth – is one that everyone has to make, Collins says. “We all have to be conscious of end-of-life use and have buy-in from the whole value chain. It’s really consumer demand driving the ball, and then you go to the front end of that chain as a manufacturer, asking what is he or she actually using to make and build that material?”

The good news is, electronics manufacturers are establishing more sustainable practices. U.S. smart speaker brand Sonos, for example, offers existing customers a 30 percent discount on new devices when their old smart speakers are deactivated and recycled. Similarly, Teracube launched a smartphone with a warranty that promotes recycling. If the phone is damaged, customers can pay a flat fee to get a refurbished phone, while their damaged one is repaired and sold to another buyer.

Legislators are also on board. The European Union, for one, is pushing for the adoption of a standardized charger for smartphones to reduce charger cord waste.

One of the most surprising things for Collins, at the company’s helm for 18 months, is the rapidly changing market for buyers of recycled parts and materials, which directly affects eCycle revenue.

“The downstreams where we take end-of-life product once it’s been recycled, those markets shift and change monthly,” he explains. “There was a glass company in Spain that used to take all of our CRT glass from your laptops or television display screens, using it to enhance ceramic products. So that little glitter you get in a ceramic tile actually comes from glass.”

In mid-2019, the Spanish government cut off those imports, so literally within a matter of 30 to 60 days, eCycle could no longer send that glass to the company and had to scramble to find a new buyer. eCycle also installed glass cutters in two of its facilities to remove the lead contaminant from display screen glass to appeal to a broader range of buyers.

The big challenge, Collins says, is, “how do you maintain your recyclables which represent anywhere from 40 to 50 percent of your revenue?” It’s a balancing act. Managing e-waste involves constantly trawling the global markets, looking for where to send end-of-life, refined, recycled product that meets the certification requirements of the Canadian marketplace.

As smartphones and other electronics become increasingly smaller and lighter, there is less intrinsic value in them from an e-waste commodity standpoint. The next wave of recycling will focus on household appliances, looking at steel, copper and aluminum for re-manufacturing – something that eCycle is already doing and preparing to ramp up even further. In fact, the company has just installed an extraction belt for steel in its Mississauga, Ontario shredding line.

“Microwaves, toasters, your vacuum cleaner, your soda machine – all of these things are now starting to come through the stewardship programs that are picking these up,” Collins says. “As a result, I don’t want those parts and plastics with my electronics recycling. So I’ve got to segregate and separate to make sure that I’ve got the proper commodities going into the proper buckets so I can maximize the value associated with that particular product.”

eCycle is definitely an influencer in the circular economy, helping to shift the mindset of not only individuals with ongoing awareness programs but also manufacturers that may not have considered the aftermarket potential.

“We’re having more discussions with manufacturers who have specialized medical equipment or other support equipment that they’ve utilized and now it’s come to end-of-life. In the past, it’s gone to landfill or has been sold off into a third-party market. Now, they’re actually trying to figure out how to do the right thing for the environment.”

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