Clean Up Oil Residue with Crushed Walnut Shells

Figuring out how to effectively clean up oil residue has been a problem engineers have grappled with ever since the first oil wells were drilled in the 1850′s. Over the years, a variety of methods and technologies have been employed, but many of these caused just as many messes as the oil itself.

 



 

What engineers didn’t know was that the solution to the problem of oil residue was quite literally growing on trees all around them.  Through a process of trial and error, it was determined that crushed walnut shells were highly effective at removing oil and suspended solids from produced water, waste, and refinery effluent. In fact, crushed walnut shells are more efficient at this task than traditional sand filters. Further, crushed walnut shell filters are lighter than sand filters, which means that they are easier to install and leave a smaller footprint behind them. This makes them ideal for offshore drilling operations, and for drilling in remote areas on land.

Crushed walnut shells are able to clean up oil residue because of the following attributes:
•Walnut shells provide a superior effluent quality and allow for longer filtration runs. This allows for the removal of up to 98% of contaminants and suspended solids.
•A walnut shell filter utilizes raw processed water and/or gas for back washing. This removes the need for additional equipment.
•Walnut shell filters function at twice the flux rate of traditional sand filters.

Combined, these attributes make crushed walnut shell filters highly attractive. Not only are they more efficient, but they are more cost effective to operate. Further, because walnut shells are chemically inert, they will not react with the oils or solids they come into contact with. This means that they can be used, cleaned, and reused many times over before they need to be replaced.

While drilling for oil will always be a dirty business, crushed walnut shell filters make that process considerably cleaner and a lot less harmful on the environment. That’s why we invite you to contact Flowspec to learn more about our crushed walnut shell filters and their industrial applications.