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Project No.: 0172.09.038.082 Page 1 of 2

Project Name: Shale Gas CBI?

Yes

No

TELEPHONE CALL RECORD

Incoming

Outgoing

Date: 9/26/11 Time: 4:00 am

pm

Company Name: EMIT Water Technologies ERG Staff Name: Brent Ruminski

Contact Name: Douglas Beagle Contact Phone Number 307-673-0805

General Subject: EMIT Higgins LoopTM Technology (Ion Exchange)

TOPICS DISCUSSED AND ACTION TAKEN

I called EMIT Water Technologies on 9/26/11 and spoke with an operator. The operator said that all of the 

engineers are out of the office. I left my contact information and the operator said he would pass it on to an 

engineer.

I received a call from Douglas Beagle on 9/28/11 at 1:00 PM. Douglas first asked what I was looking for and 

why. I told him he could contact EPA if he wanted any more information. He did not want to contact EPA, but 

he said he would not share any costs associated with their product.

We discussed how EMIT offers the Higgins Loop

TM only as a rental. The cost to the renter includes on-site 

operators from EMIT that run the entire unit and any necessary materials. The renter gets charged by the barrel 

of treated wastewater. The charged rate per barrel depends on the extent of treatment, which is indicated by the 

flow rate of wastewater (higher flow rate increases the rate) and the initial water quality and target water quality 

(lower initial quality increases the costs). The unit requires a crane and oversized truck to transport, and 

therefore is only somewhat mobile. It usually stays on site for several years before being relocated.

The unit only uses cation exchange resins instead of using both cation and anion resins because of the 

bicarbonate in the CBM water. After cations are removed from the CBM water the anions in the water react 

with the bicarbonate in the water to facilitate removal. The unit removes nearly all of the cations present in 

CBM produced water. Douglas said the unit is capable of removing radium to below 1 pCi/L. The operation 

must change slightly to remove radium but does not require any different resin. 

The regenerate solution is HCl and the effluent concentrate (regenerate) volume is about 1 percent of the 

influent wastewater volume. However, when talking about the concentrate volume, Douglas mentioned that the 

typical influent TDS concentration is only 3,500 mg/L. He said the concentrate waste stream is disposed of, but 

he did not specify how or where, and the treated wastewater is typically not reused but rather used in land 

application or discharged. Douglas suggested that disposal practices depend largely on state regulations.

He classified the Higgins LoopTM unit as a continuous operation. In order to operate continuously, there are two 

modes of operation: normal and pulsing. During normal operation, ion exchange and regeneration occur 

simultaneously in separate parts of the unit: the regeneration zone and the ion exchange zone. When the resin’s 

performance decreases, normal operation is interrupted and the resin is “pulsed” (moved) through the loop. 

Regenerated resin moves from the regeneration zone and into the ion exchange zone. Spent resin moves from 

the ion exchange zone to the regeneration zone. According to Douglas, the pulsing mode occurs every 3 to 4 

minutes and only lasts for 10-15 seconds. The pulsing moves about 20’’ of resin (in a 24’’ diameter pipe) at a 

time.
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Douglas went on to say that ion exchange is a reliable treatment options and it is a good fit for the CBM 

industry because of the bicarbonate present in CBM produced water. The fact that minimal pretreatment is 

required makes it a viable option for operators. However, Douglas suggested that produced water from shale gas 

is a different story. Douglas did not go into detail about this suggestion, but he related it to the quality of shale 

gas wastewater.