Liberty Oilfield Services is to conduct trials of Energy Recovery’s Vor Teq hydraulic pumping system for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) at US well sites. The system is based on Energy Recovery’s PX Pressure Exchanger technology which is deployed in more than 15,000 desalination installations worldwide according to Energy Recovery.
The trials in the northern US Bakken oilfield formation are expected to last at least six months. The field tests follow months of successful in-house testing, as well as extensive tests at the fabrication facility earlier this quarter said Energy Recovery.
The trials will include testing the VorTeq system under production conditions.
The VorTeq increases runtime and reduces maintenance costs by rerouting abrasive, proppant-laden fracking fluid away from existing hydraulic fracturing pumps, such that these pumps only process clean water, and therefore last significantly longer.
Energy Recovery president and chief executive Officer, Joel Gay said: “We designed the product to fill a necessary market need while providing a significant value proposition to customers in the hydraulic fracking business. We feel that this value proposition will remain attractive for [fracking] service providers by addressing the very real problem of regular pump failure. We are very pleased with the development process of the VorTeq to date and look forward to continuing this momentum.”
Vice president of technology and development at Liberty Oilfield Services, Ron Gusek, said: “For the past ten years I’ve been thinking about a way to avoid pumping sand through our high pressure pumps. During the past several months, I’ve been seeing this come to fruition with the development of VorTeq.” He said the field tests, were, “the solution to a critical problem in our work that has challenged the industry for years.”