Justin Hall

A project underway by WIST laboratory services will help global company Siemens provide sustainable water technology to the oil and gas industry.

  

Siemens, with €75.9 billion in revenue at the end of fiscal 2013, ranks as one of the world's largest corporations and is a major force in water technology and engineering. Its facility in Rothschild, Wisconsin employs about 150 people, and is the global headquarters for research and development activities associated with treating water in the oil and gas industry, just 20 minutes up the Interstate from Stevens Point and WIST.

  

"This project is going to help Siemens in its efforts to develop sustainable processes to recapture and re-use water at oil and gas processing operations around the world," said Bill Cunningham, manager for biological processes and products for Siemens in Rothschild.

  

In the oil and gas world, crude oil contains a fair amount of water when it arrives to be refined, and water is actually used to wash the crude to remove salts, Cunningham explained. In treating the water, the oil is first removed. Then dissolved organic and inorganic compounds that remain in the water are typically removed with a biological treatment process.

  

"Sometimes the water temperature is elevated and needs to be cooled before it can be effectively treated," Cunningham said. "The current research that is going to go on with WIST at UWSP is to help define...

  

Eric Singsaas

Successful research and development is typically the product of collaboration and shared knowledge. To that end, Eric Singsaas, WIST director of research, is in Denmark this week to provide an overview of WIST biofuels research projects to the bioprocessing and bioenergy groups at the Danish Technical University. Singsaas also was invited to present at the 22nd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition in Hamburg, Germany, June 23-26. He will present a poster, "Lignocellulosic Biorefinery Technology Implementation at a Working Pulp Mill," which examines WIST's collaboration with a working pulp mill in the Western U.S.

  

You can read more about WIST's bioenergy and cellulosic materials research on our website.

  

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