Enbridge Gas
Enbridge Gas Distribution Georgian Bay Pipeline Project
July 2008-December 2008
PROJECT DETAILS
The Georgian Bay Pipeline Reinforcement Project is required in order to meet the growing demand for natural gas in the region due to the anticipated social and industrial growth in the area.
The project is to construct a 12-inch diameter natural gas pipeline totaling 20 kilometres(12 miles) in length along the south shore of Georgian Bay, about 50 minutes north of Toronto in Central Ontario. The route includes approximately 30 road, rail and river crossings.
The Ministry of the Environment (MOE) in Ontario has declared spent HDD (horizontal directional drilling) muds as industrial liquid waste and as such must be treated and disposed of in accordance with this regulation. As a result, MetaFLO had been awarded the contract to treat (solidify), transport, and dispose of excess drilling mud generated from the pipeline installation.
PROBLEMS FACED BY CUSTOMER
Disposal of the spent drill muds as a liquid industrial waste is extremely cost prohibitive, as these liquids are difficult to handle and dispose of.
A secondary problem is that preliminary on-site tests found elevated BTEX, pH, and SAR levels in the spent drilling muds.
MetaFLO’s REAL-TIME-SOLIDIFICATIONTM SOLUTION
Enbridge has estimated that 250,000 gallons of spent drill muds will be produced during this project which would be equivalent to 940,000 litres. Disposal of the liquid waste would require an estimated 84 vacuum truckloads plus tipping fees for this project.
MetaFLO’s Real-Time- Solidification process is currently solidifying the spent drill muds at a dosing rate of less than 2% reagent. An estimated 69 tri-axles will be required to dispose of the solids. Using the MetaFLO process, we estimate a 30% savings to Enbridge.
Our goal is to treat and solidify the mud to meet Table 1 standards and allow for disposal as clean fill. In order to meet Table 1 standards, we must first identify why the SARs and pH are high and address it prior to solidification. Original findings show that HDD contractors are using additives to raise pH (resulting in a quicker mud yield), which in turn may raise SAR levels. In addition, years of soil contamination from vehicle use and road salt at several crossings may also be contributing factors to elevated soil salt and BTEX levels which exceed Table 1 standards.
If in fact the cause is road salt contamination our Real-Time-Solidification (R-T-STM) process can neither remove salts nor reduce SARs; however, our R-T-STM process can offer the customer a cost savings at landfill through volume reduction.
Prior projects completed in Western Canada have experienced up to 40% volume reduction when land applying the solidified mud using the Real-Time-Solidification (R-T-STM) process. With this project, the solidified mud is piled in holding berms to a depth of 4 feet prior to disposal. The material is turned twice in a three-day period to allow for increased volume reduction. Upon disposal, after just three days in the berm, there was over 23% volume reduction.
In total, this project requires solidification of 300,000 gallons of drill mud at an average weight of 12 lbs/gallon, which would equal 3,600,000 lbs of drill muds or 1,800 tonne. With a 23% volume reduction through our Real-Time-Solidification process we could decrease that to 1,386 tonne. With landfills charging by the tonne, this will generate a secondary cost savings to the customer in addition to the 30% saved through solidification.
MetaFLO’s Real-Time-Solidification process combined with volume reduction not only provides the customer with significant disposal cost savings, it reduces the number of trucks on our highways and also extends the life expectancy of Ontario landfills.