Challenge

ECT2’s team of experts were brought in following an incidental release of crude oil at an oil refinery in Washington state. The refinery initially tasked CTEH with the emerging response duties and needed a reliable partner to remediate the refinery of any and all contaminants of concern. Considering ECT2 and CTEH have worked on numerous projects together, it was a natural fit to ensure the facility was properly cleaned and ready to resume normal operations.

After collecting the mixture of oil and water, the Washington oil refinery called upon ECT2’s team to design, installed, and manage a turnkey water treatment system on-site.

Solution

Turnaround time was the primary focus on the project, given the costs associated with storing the spill in rented frac tanks. ECT2’s rapid response program allowed the ECT2 team to discuss the project on a Thursday afternoon and be on-site the following Monday.

Another main focus was to meet state strict PFAS discharge standards as quickly as possible. Washington state, along with many other states, have lowered discharge limits that require water to meet EPA 1633 non-detect levels for >40 PFAS compounds. The oil refinery tasks ECT2 with treating this oil-water emulsion as the team is uniquely qualified to achieve non-detect PFAS in such short time.

Results

The team mobilized a treatment system of ECT2 rapid response assets, including granular activated carbon, SORBIX™ PURE ion exchange resin (IEX) and SORBIX AvPURE. This system was commissioned and deployed within 10 days by utilizing ECT2’s rapid response resources. ECT2 has equipment on stand-by, ready to implement in situations such as this. From emergencies requiring large-scale treatment vessels, to advanced oxidation approaches, the team is able to mobilize this equipment as well as utilize in-house research & development labs to efficiently determine the best solution.

In order to reach non-detect levels for all compounds as quickly as possible, the system flowrate was set at 35 gallons per minute. In addition to designing and installing the system, the ECT2 team provided on-site operators to ensure the system continued to treat the water efficiently and effectively. In parallel, prior to startup, the ECT2 R&D laboratory initiated testing with the site water in order to identify and find solutions for potential roadblocks that may be encountered at full-scale.

EPA 1633 PFAS testing was conducted by a 3rd party lab, and results demonstrated that the ECT2 deployed treatment approach reliably achieved non-detect levels of PFAS.

The Washington oil refinery successfully reached water quality compliance standards and were able to resume normal operations.