Valuable Waste

Drilling for oil produces byproducts. Drilling mud, plus drill cuttings and residue oil that could be harmful to the environment. But you can turn them into sustainable and saleable recycled fuel by using Busch vacuum technology.

A waste management company in Scotland needed a solution for its offshore drilling waste. In the process, waste is brought to the surface and the various materials contained within it are separated at the rig. Residue oil is one substance. It gets shipped back to a waste management facility on shore. There it is run through a vacuum distillation process. This is how leftover drilling oil is turned into a profitable product.

But the company management had an issue. They needed a specific vacuum solution. Process carryover in their industry can break down oil in a vacuum pump. When this was happening at their facility, there was no properly functioning vacuum pump, no distillation and no sustainable fuel. Not to mention a serious amount of downtime, and maintenance costs. So, they contacted Busch Vacuum Solutions to replace their existing vacuum pump with a dry one. The result was that we installed a COBRA screw vacuum pump.

The benefits have been clear to see. No breakdown of the vacuum pump, so better processing times and a huge reduction in maintenance work. Above all, though, the COBRA has preserved the smooth running of a green solution.