Summary

When all-inclusive costs are considered, water based, non-toxic, non-flammable and environmentally safe Petromax products are by far the most effective and lowest cost way of remediating petro-waste and maximizing recovery

Petromax is a combination of specific chemical components with related mechanical applications. These applications focus on waste handling minimization and rapid sludge mobilization both at the point of application and down-stream handling. To maximize existing production methods, Petromax applications may also be combined with conventional technologies to lower production costs.

Magnet Negative (+) (-) (+) The Physical Phenomena: The effect of this repelling/cleaning process is as if two magnets of like polarities when brought close to one another are immediately repelled by like polarities. Thereby, the bond between inorganic and organic surfaces is broken and the organic and inorganic molecules will not re-attach.

Crude tanks, Waste pits, Lagoons, Railcars, Tankers, Surface cleaning, Sand cleaning, Pipeline Drag Reduction and Down Hole Well Stimulation

The appropriately diluted Petromax concentrated solution is hydro blasted through an Application Spray tip at 210 bars. This breaks the bond between the inorganic particles and the hydrocarbon. The balance of charges shift to a negative state and the inorganic particles and the hydrocarbon, instantly begin to repel from each other and will not re-attach. This physical application requires close proximity of a spray tip to the inorganics in order to shear off the attached hydrocarbon and apply the negative charge to sand, clay, catalyst, etc. This suspended slurry will not stick to the interior of hoses or downstream containment once it is pumped from its original containment.

The following pictorial slides and video clips describe a typical sludge conditioning application. The net result of this mobilization application is to modify the surface charge and micro encapsulate the crude sludge while creating a colloidal suspension for ease of transportation to a coker for hydrocarbon recovery or other appropriate disposal.

Crude oil tank bottoms contain settled inorganic particles coated with toxic materials which create a very tacky sludge at the bottom of storage tanks. The inorganics and crude are tightly bound by the balance of negative and positive charges in this non-polar environment throughout the sludge. This makes for a very unpumpable waste that is difficult and expensive to remove from the tank. Of great significance, when conventional removal methods are used, and transportation and all disposal costs are taken into consideration the total costs are exorbitant.

The spray tip is buried into the sludge during the conditioning process. Shearing the crude from the inorganic surface must first occur to allow surface charge changing to occur. Because the process happens rapidly, very little Petromax is required and It typically adds only 15 - 20 % to the waste stream. The hand held hydro blasting wand is inserted in to the sludge and the resulting slurry is immediately vacuumed up and the process is repeated until the tank is emptied. Because the slurry will not then attach to metal, time consuming vacuum truck washouts are all but eliminated.

Crude sludge of this nature are particularly problematic to remove. Conventionally, a combination of heat, a diluent, and high volume circulation are used to loosen and transfer these types of sludge. Some heavies will remain in a tank and entry will be required for sludge removal prior to inspection. Petromax is a low volume micro encapsulation application (without the use of heat) to immediately mobilize and vacuum remove this type of sludge with a clean tank bottom remaining.

Our water-based chemical solution does not contain surfactants and does not mix with the crude. The hydro blasting pressure and close proximity liquid impact breaks up the paraffin or asphalt sludge. Since there are variations from one sludge to the next representative samples are tested to determine the most cost effective dilution to apply.

Once the conditioned sludge {with suspended solids in the slurry) has been removed from its containment, the solids can be further cleaned for oil recovery and/or solids remediation. If this is the desired result, a highly diluted Petromax application is repeated to shear the balance of hydrocarbons from the inorganics causing a total separation. Floating oil does not mix with the water layer and the cleaned solids drop to the bottom.

As Petromax is hydro blasted into a given area, when the slurry is instantly created, it is immediately vacuumed to an outside mobile containment. This suspension/conditioning process enables the waste stream to be transferred quickly and easily from point A to point B and with a very low percentage of Petromax added to the waste stream; all inorganic particles remain in suspension until final separation is desired. At the point where drop-out of inorganic particles is required, a small additional amount of Petromax is added and the oil will float to the surface of the water layer and the clean inorganic particles will drop to the bottom.

When a miniscule percentage of Petromax is added ahead of the main pipeline pump for heavy oil, the need for heat or expensive drag reducers is eliminated. Conventional drag reducers lose their effectiveness when the oil is again run through a booster pump and the drag reducer must be replaced. The effectiveness of Petromax is actually increased by the shearing action of the pump so a one-time treatment is all that is required from storage tank to refinery. In addition to the elimination of heat, the pipeline it is not necessary to insulate the pipeline. The cumulative savings are significant.

The crude sludge that has been mobilized with a Petromax application will have already started the oil, water, solids separation process and will continue to do so in a mix tank just prior to the centrifuge. The footprint of the process will be smaller since the waste stream has been significantly minimized compared to a conventional waste transfer process.

Tested by US Filter on their dewatering equipment, yielded a significantly drier cake. Instead of the usual 30% - 40% liquid content on the filter test, the conditioned sludge yielded a result of 17.5% and did not require the addition of polymers during the watering process. This allows the dewatering technician to more easily dial-in his process, as well as, reduce the total dewatering costs.

Within an oil refinery operation T&D costs for refinery wastes are both manpower and equipment intensive. These outdated methods create a series of costly repetitive and laborious activities at a cost significantly greater than the original removal cost when conventional means of tank cleaning are utilized

Since the waste stream volume has been significantly reduced, Petromax conditioned sludge requires far fewer storage tanks and remains pumpable throughout the Coker injection transfer schedule.

Associated Laboratories Certified Results: Contaminated Soil – 4,620 ppm TPH Cleaned Soil – 190 ppm TPH Wash Water Fines – 8,790 ppm

The Petromax cold water process is the most effective way to remove bitumen from both Alberta water-wet and Utah oil‑wet sand.

Further, Petromax sand cleaning/oil recovery process will not create stable, emulsified tailings (MFT) and recycling the water based chemical in such a large application is a huge benefit. Water recovery, energy savings and the elimination of toxic waste “ponds” are dramatic pluses over the current Clark Hot Water process used in Alberta, Canada and the solvent based methods used in Utah.

Petromax MFT-2 – In the huge Alberta storage “ponds” over 700 million cubic meters of Mature fine tailings (MFT) are stored awaiting remediation. MFT consists of an emulsified waste stream generated through conventional means of bitumen oil recovery from tar/oil sands. The Petromax process breaks this emulsion into a 3 phase separation of clay, water, and recoverable bitumen. There are millions of barrels of bitumen now recoverable from the MFT.