ELGIN SEPARATION SOLUTIONS: Made in India Solids Control Equipment for Trenchless Industry
Solids Control in Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) Although the use of drilling fluids within the Horizontal Directional Drilling/ Trenchless Industry is relatively new, recent trends suggest that the standard is shifting rapidly, as solids control is one of the most important phases of the drilling process. The adaption of solids control in HDD has seen
Solids Control in Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD)
Although the use of drilling fluids within the Horizontal Directional Drilling/ Trenchless Industry is relatively new, recent trends suggest that the standard is shifting rapidly, as solids control is one of the most important phases of the drilling process. The adaption of solids control in HDD has seen a massive growth in the last year in India, with stronger environmental regulations, growing awareness about maintenance of drilling fluids & the actual realization of the economics of mud recycling. Optimized solids control packages can double if not triple the life of the mud and the mud handling gear but also improves profitability while reducing the net environmental impact.
Talking about drilling fluids, Mohit Aggarwal, Director, Trishul Industries, one of India's largest bentonite and additives supplier, said “Fluids in HDD essentially are made up of water, bentonite, and additives. While bentonite continues to be commoditized in India the additives are seeing an upward trend, the costs associated with transporting bentonite and or water to remote location is a major factor in the consideration of a mud recycling system, a system that removes the drilled cuttings from the slurry and allows for re-use of the drilling fluid within the HDD mud system.
Evolution of Technology
HDD fluid recycling technology has truly evolved from the oil and gas industry, where the same technology has been used in a larger form factor for decades. A typical setup includes Shale Shakers followed by Mud-Cleaners (with a series of desanding and desilting hydrocyclones) mounted on a series of tanks with centrifugal pumps, agitators, and mud mixing hoppers. This technology has been packaged into a smaller footprint for ease of transportation and taken the form of what we now know as a packaged Mud-Recycling System.
Advantages of Low Solids In Drilling Mud
The usage of engineered drilling fluids provides for several benefits, including, but not limited to:
- Increased drilling penetration.
- Increase bit or back reamer life.
- Reduce mud cost.
- Reduce triplex mud pump, mud motor & surface equipment maintenance cost.
- Reduced clean-up & haul-off or disposal cost
The Indian Scenario
With over 30 years of Experience, Elgin Separation Solutions (Elgin) is one of the leading providers of packaged solids control systems in the world. Elgin is headquartered in Houston, Texas, and operates in India through its subsidiary Kem-Tron Technologies Pvt. Ltd. located in Vadodara, Gujarat. KEMTRON was the first mobile solids control OEM to obtain ISO 9001 certification for its packaged mud recycling systems and currently maintains the largest market share of packaged mud recycling systems in India.
Talking about the brand, Ravneet Singh, at Ace Energy Infrastructures stated “The brand KEMTRON has a reputation in India for designing the most advanced and premium recycling systems. They are at the forefront of research and innovation in this field. Customization and personalization based on the customers needs is indeed their hallmark”.
“Infrastructure sector is a key driver for the Indian economy. The sector is highly responsible for propelling India's overall development and enjoys intense focus from the Indian Government for initiating policies that would ensure time-bound creation of world class infrastructure in the country. Infrastructure sector includes power, communications, utilities, bridges, dams, roads, and urban infrastructure development; a host of markets that are now supported by Elgin through its packaged Drilling Fluid Mud Reclamation Systems. India plans to spend $1 trillion USD on infrastructure between 2021 and 2025.
In support of India's investments in the sustainable development of its future, Elgin has made several technological and manufacturing investments in Baroda. In just two years, Elgin has been able to supplant a large volume of purchases that were historically made from international sources, namely China, to its operation in Baroda. The combination of technology, quality manufacturing and responsive service has earned Elgin an 80% market share in Drilling Fluid Reclamation Systems.
Elgin now looks to expand its product offering to a variety of complementing products and services. Elgin is committed to supporting India's aspirations for world-class infrastructure with world class equipment and services.” said Michael Rai Anderson, President Elgin Separation Solutions -Industrials LLC.
“The growth we have seen in the Indian market last year is remarkable, the accessibility to mud-recycling systems over the last decade was limited to large scale HDD players, we have seen a drastic shift in that and are now seeing more takers for smaller recycling systems that cater to 45-150 Ton Rig Segment. Accessibility to finance for drillers, stronger economics while operating in rock and improved processes for knowledge transfer through various events have been the driving factors for this growth.” Added Dev Mehta, the Director of Indian Operations at Elgin Separation Solutions.
Speaking to India's Only Directional Drilling Rig Manufacturer, "We have now been recommending these mud-recycling system to our customers, especially to those who are drilling in rock. These systems reduce the operational wear on critical drilling apparatus. While earlier there was a notion of there being a steep learning curve in the utility of a mud recycling system, we are seeing rapid adoption within the country now" - said, Parth Patel, Managing Director at Apollo Techno.
The Technology
Elgin's systems provide superior cleaning capabilities and surpass the competition with numerous advantages. All units feature a double deck, patented Hyper-G Linear Motion Shale Shaker that acts as the first line of defence against the solid's laden slurry. Their shakers utilize a dual deck scalping design to ensure that the first cut achieves maximum flow rate management. This reduces the burden on the hydrocyclone system and provides for maximum cut performance and fluid recycling. The fluid is then sent into the hydrocyclone desilters or desanders, through the on-board pumps to achieve the required cut. Now this fluid can be reused in the mud system and is transferred back. With the most screening capacity in the market, Elgin's line of KEMTRON units can outperform its competitors in sand and silt removal.
One of the earliest adopters of this Technology and India's leading HDD Player, Trenchless Engineering Services Private Limited maintains the largest fleet of HDD Maxi Rigs & they are ably complemented by Elgin's KEMTRON Mud Recycling systems, “We have operated Elgin's systems in India and abroad, consistency in their product quality, dependability, and durability is something that is unquestionable and has maintained a streak throughout. While we have operated various brands, Elgin's systems are the easiest to operate and maintain. We've used four recycling systems, two on each side for one of our largest project's at Vashi Creek in Mumbai, with a crossing diameter of 18'' over 2600m in hard rock strata besides Mahanadi river of 12”+6”” x 3200 Mtr. In the current scenario all our rigs are paired with a recycling system, and we do not see that changing for the foreseeable future” stated,
Vipin Gupta, MD at Trenchless Engineering Services, India.
Economics of Drilling with Mud Recycling Systems
India is on a mission of self-sufficiency, and reduced dependency on standalone gas bottles. Majority of the gas companies are laying a network of pipelines across the country. While the cross-country pipeline continues, there are a lot of city gas projects popping up. These projects are in areas with limited accessibility to water and along cramped up regions. There are a lot of jobs in the north-eastern, eastern, and southern corridors of India, these regions have an extremely rocky sub-stratum. “One cannot drill in rock without a mud recycling-system, it does not make any economic sense to operate otherwise”, stated Vishal Ummat, Director at Bluegrass Technologies (One of India's leading HDD players). “There are massive costs associated with transporting bentonite and water to these locations, the cost of transport is usually more than the full truck load of bentonite, and the situation is aggravated by lack of readily available water.” continued Vishal. The pipeline companies are also regulating the dumping of waste slurry into rivers/farms with tighter norms. “We have successfully completed multiple crossings with re-using 90% of the slurry, the fresh requirement of mud is limited to the enlargement of the bore annulus while drilling, everything else is recycled.”- continues Vishal.
We successfully deployed a KEMTRON system in the Shastri River Crossing in 2019. It was a very challengingproject with difficult terrainand hard rock crossing. We were able to recover 70 to 80% of the bentonite whichresulted in substantial cost savings for us.”- Vishal Ummat.
The Future
Speaking about the future in India, Emad Babri, Vice President of Technology, and Innovation at Elgin Separation Solutions-Industrials LLC stated, “As the world is going through digital transformation, the demand for latest technologies and quality products is ever growing. Elgin has been investing in expanding its operations in India and transferring the proprietary and patented technologies of its products to its operations in India, to support the demand of the new world. Elgin's core focus in these latest technologies is to ensure optimal performance and enhanced operator experience, which minimizes downtime and extend the life of the equipment.
Over the last few years, Elgin has successfully expanded and assembled a world class team in India, who continue to support and provide an exemplary customer service for our clients. Not only our operations in India can cater to the industry's need for new equipment, but they are also providing technical education and consulting to solve real world challenges, so that our clients can make the best possible decision. This unique combination of manufacturing, advanced technologies, engineering services and client-oriented services has allowed Elgin India to become the most reliable partner to work with.”
"Being the pioneers in manufacturing of concrete equipment, We at Schwing Stetter-XCMG - believe in value for money and to be the very best in our customer’s eyes. Customer satisfaction and after-sales support are extremely important prongs of our vision; hence we are associated with Elgin who also live by our vision and educate the customer to make informed decisions about correctly sized recycling systems paired with our HDD rigs. They are well versed in "Know-How " of these systems and economics of usage of it."-States Varadraju TP, Vertical head HDD, Schwing Stetter – XCMG.
“We are very excited about our future in India, our goal has always been to showcase state of the art equipment with incremental technological improvements year on year relevant to India, in the last year we have successfully launched new HDD packages with wave screens and side pump pockets in India, we also introduced our smallest KEMTRON 200HD2 system specifically catering to the city-gas pipeline contractors. 2022 is going to be a big year for us in terms of technological advances, we are going to launch the rubber lined slurry pumps, a jet shearing system and improved jacking and vibration isolation in our Hyper-GTM Shakers. We are working with the drilling companies directly to have a system to showcase in No Dig India 2021- organized by INDSTT in December 2021. We are now, more than ever, a part of an ecosystem of rig manufacturers, drillers and equipment suppliers within the HDD industry in India, that can truly take on any challenge- and cares about the sustainable future of India,” – Concludes Dev Mehta, Director, Indian Operations, Elgin Separation Solutions.
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