Notes from John Crane Treatment Technology Call on 2/11/14

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Unconventional Oil and Gas Wastewater Treatment Technology Call with John Crane on 2/11/2014

Participants:

EPA: Lisa Biddle, Jesse Pritts

ERG: Sarah Hays

John Crane: Chris Songer, Mike Kalodimos1

Background on John Crane:

- John Crane has been in business for over 100 years.

- John Crane wants to learn more from EPA about the direction EPA is going in regarding unconventional oil 

and gas (UOG) to be able to meet their customers’ needs.

John Crane’s Experience:

- In 1986, John Crane acquired a pulp and paper company (Safematic). Since then, John Crane feels they’ve 

been well immersed in water filtration treatment technologies.

- After pulp and paper, John Crane moved into in-plant water clarification and disinfection in corn 

processing.

- As John Crane grew, they acquired other filtration companies around the oil and gas industry.

- John Crane is currently working to develop CBM sites in north Rockies through “John Crane Production 

Solutions”.

- John Crane wants to merge their filtration skills, products, and technology knowledge with the 

distribution force of John Crane Production Solutions.

- John Crane has seals that prevent leaks on pumps and other applications. They came out with a dry seal in

the early 1990s.

Question: John Crane wants to learn from EPA about what EPA will expect of the oil and gas industry once the 

rulemaking is complete.

Answer: Lisa Biddle gave an overview of the scope of the UOG project and what we’ve learned so far about UOG 

wastewater characteristics and UOG wastewater management and disposal. Lisa then asked John Crane if they had 

worked on any data collections efforts regarding filtration treatment.

Question: John Crane asked what the UOG industry is looking for in a final treated product for reuse in fracturing. 

Does the industry require drinking water quality water, a low concentration of TDS in the effluent water, or some 

other criteria?

John Crane and the UOG Industry:

- John Crane has looked at membrane technologies for treatment prior to reuse, but thinks they are too 

“high-tech” for the UOG industry. Rather, John Crane noted that the UOG industry needs technologies 

that already exist (e.g., filter press, dissolved air flotation, activated beds).

- John Crane is most interested in technologies they’ve developed and have intellectual property on as well 

as technologies that have existed for years. 

- John Crane’s target audience is operators who are reusing their UOG wastewater in fracturing. John Crane 

focuses only on slickwater fracturing (no gel fracs) for reuse because of John Crane filtration treatment 

limitations.

 1 Product manager and engineer who has worked for John Crane for more than 30 years.
Notes from John Crane Treatment Technology Call on 2/11/14

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- John Crane wants to produce systems that are completely mobile and they think they have an advantage 

in that they can deliver systems to sites and minimize transportation costs because of their global 

presence.

- To date, John Crane hasn’t treated UOG wastewater and they noted there are a lot of “curve balls” in this 

industry. For example, John Crane is challenged by the high TDS concentrations in UOG wastewater; a 

problem which they noted has been “unsolvable with present technologies”2

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John Crane and Filtration Technology:

- John Crane doesn’t have TDS concentration data, but noted that sodium is the most challenging ion 

present in TDS. High concentrations of sodium in flowback scares machine operators into wanting to 

underground inject flowback because they don’t want to run that type of liquid through their equipment.

- There are a number of technologies (e.g., reverse osmosis, membrane technologies) that claim to be able 

to treat high TDS wastewater. John Crane identified high energy usage as the biggest issue with these 

other technologies.

- John Crane is interested in filtering suspended solids (TSS) and dissolved solids (TDS) out of UOG

wastewater. One of the John Crane representatives also noted that a common misconception is that once 

suspended solids are removed, you’re done with treatment. John Crane noted that conventional filtration 

uses screens and filter cakes, polishing methods (e.g., activated/sand beds), and pretreatment emulsion 

removal (e.g., dissolved air).

Lisa recommended reaching out to trade associations and/or attending conferences about management of UOG 

wastewater (e.g., API). John Crane noted that they attended the recent American Business Conference about the 

UOG industry in Dallas, TX.

Question: John Crane asked EPA what data would be useful for them.

Answer: Jesse Pritts noted that any paired influent and effluent (performance) data related to a given treatment 

technology would be helpful.

Underground Injection for Disposal Wells:

- John Crane thinks that eventually there will need to be limits on the quality of water operators will be 

permitted to inject for disposal.

Question: John Crane asked EPA if there will be a limit put in place. 

Answer: Lisa responded that underground injection wells are regulated under a different program. Lisa 

also noted that she wonders if there is unlimited capacity for UIC wells, and noted that she doesn’t have 

answers to these questions.

- John Crane noted that they think underground injection in an undesirable disposal means in terms of 

environmental responsibility.

- Lisa noted that some environmental groups think that underground injection is actually the safest disposal 

option.

 2 John Crane representatives did not elaborate on exactly what challenges they face with treating wastewater with 

high concentrations TDS.