Design-Build System for Dewatering, Mixing, and Drying Oilfield Drill Cuttings

General Description

R360 Environmental Solutions is the U.S.’s leading environmental oilfield waste management provider, offering solutions in landfill-waste collection & disposal, land treatment processes, and oil reclamation. R360 has an existing processing plant located in Stanton, Texas, near Midland. The plant serves as a full-service oilfield waste processing center that manages drill cuttings/muds, contaminated soils, production/tank sludges, as well as produced and flowback/frac waters. For this project, R360 required an entire processing system for drill cuttings transported in by truck.

KWS designed and manufactured a complete system that included –

• Dewatering and storing wet drill cuttings
• Metering dewatered drill cuttings to a continuous mixer
• Mixing dewatered drill cuttings with lime or flyash
• Drying and solidifying drill cuttings
• Transporting dried and solidified drill cuttings to load out

Since the drill cuttings contain liquid hydrocarbons, there is value in extracting the remaining liquid. The dried and solidified drill cuttings are taken to disposal or used as fill material. KWS worked with R360 very closely to develop a rugged and reliable processing system.

Design Parameters

KWS Advantages

R360 Environmental Solutions and KWS had worked together on previous projects and were looking for an engineered solution for the processing and disposal of drill cuttings. KWS has a complete team of degreed mechanical engineers with the skillset and resources to develop customized solutions for our Customers. Engineers from R360 and KWS met to brainstorm and develop the basic layout of the system. KWS designed the system in Autodesk 3D Inventor and provided a detailed sales proposal. As a registered engineering firm for the state of Texas, KWS provides process and system design as well as design of structural supports. As a manufacturer, KWS provides complete manufacturing of all conveying and process equipment including structural supports and interconnecting chute work. R360 had all they needed for installation and operation, saving a tremendous amount of time and cost when compared to using an outside engineering firm. KWS analyzed the space constraints of the project and fully understood the Customer’s concerns, needs, and goals. KWS engineers also tested material samples and conducted site surveys to ensure the process would work perfectly. Working together with R360, KWS supplied a successful and effective drill cuttings disposal system.

Special Features

KWS designed and manufactured every piece of the drill cuttings disposal system. The Receiving Hopper and structure received wet drill cuttings from end dump trucks. The hopper inlet was designed with an articulating grate to screen off large pieces of debris. The grate can be actuated so large pieces of debris can be removed by gravity and directed into a roll-off container. The hopper was designed to aid in the dewatering of the wet drill cuttings with several drains locations. A Twin Ribbon Screw Feeder was located under the Receiving Hopper and metered dewatered drill cuttings to the Continuous Mixer. The ribbon screw was designed to meter the wet, sticky material. The unit was located on an incline to further aid in the dewatering process. At the downstream end, another connection was located to collect valuable liquids.

KWS also designed and provided a 190-cubic foot fly ash hopper and screw feeder for metering fly ash into the Continuous Mixer. The dewatered drill cuttings and flyash were completely mixed with the twin counter-rotating paddle screws. The paddles were constructed from extremely wear resistant Allied Clad plate with hard surfacing. The Twin Continuous Mixer then discharged the dry, solidified drill cuttings to the Load-Out Belt Conveyor. The Load-Out Belt Conveyor transferred the finished product up an incline of 30-degrees to a discharge height of 17-feet to load dump trucks. The engineers at KWS designed a unique S-path flex-wall conveyor for this application. The Load-Out Belt Conveyor was completely weather-proof and included a mechanism to aid in the discharge of the drill cuttings into the dump trucks.