Oil Removal Solutions Blog

Railroads are among the world’s most environmentally conscious companies. In an industry that re-fuels hundreds of locomotives every day and can use up to 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel for just one re-fuel, railroad yards must both prevent and properly manage spills when they occur. When it comes to storm water and wastewater treatment, fuel spills and oil leaks can pose significant challenges.

Spilled fuel or leaked oil at a railroad yard typically ends up in a collection pit along with wastewater, wash water or storm water. To meet municipality requirements and ensure environmental responsibility, the fuel and oil needs to be removed from the water. One proven way railroads can achieve effective removal is by installing an oil skimming system.

Salt water is a byproduct of oil and natural gas extraction. Typically, the salt water contains residual oil. For companies involved in the disposal of salt water, removing the residual oil from the water offers potentially significant economic benefit.

One salt water disposal facility successfully used a Model 6V Brill^® oil skimmer with the free floating collector tube, from Oil Skimmers, Inc. to remove oil from its disposal pit. The Model 6V performed flawlessly and provided significant economic benefits and an ROI measured in weeks, not months or years. The disposal facilities’ business grew to the point where additional oil removal capability was required. In response to the need, Oil Skimmers, Inc. offered the heavy duty, high capacity Model 7V Brill^® tube-type oil skimmer.

For 50 years, Oil Skimmers, Inc. has designed and developed oil skimmers, oil removal systems, and custom engineered solutions for over 35,000 applications in all industries, in 119 countries around the world.

Our company's founder invented the tube type oil skimmer to ensure efficient, effective oil removal in any application, small or large. Five decades later, we offer a full line of industrial oil removal equipment as well as custom engineering capabilities to meet every oil removal need.

The original Brill tube type oil skimmer remains a very important and versatile element of our product line, and is still one of the best methods available to remove oil from industrial process water and wastewater. Its design, rugged construction, durability, versatility, efficiency, and effectiveness is unsurpassed.

How Did We Do It?

Service

The sales, engineering and operations teams at Oil Skimmers, Inc. all worked together to devise a customized solution that met the customer’s stringent commercial and technical requirements. With Oil Skimmers, Inc., customers are not only guaranteed the very best in oil skimming technology, they are also provided superior customer service. When possible, we meet with our customers and visit their facilities. And, we always make it our mission to help solve their issues, address their challenges and devise solutions that will meet their individual needs.

“Our ability to design, build and ship 23 custom oil skimmers halfway around the word in just 120 days was a record for our company – and vital to the customer,” said President Mike Gaudiani, Oil Skimmers, Inc. “It was a challenge happily accepted and met.” 

Oil skimmer reduces cost, increases performance and decreases material waste

Food manufacturers are tasked with managing oil in the wastewater from their manufacturing processes on an ongoing basis. 

Recently, a privately-held snack food manufacturer that produces potato chips established a goal to increase chip production by 20 percent. However, increasing production also meant increasing the amount of cooking oil discharged into the wastewater from washing the fryers used to cook the chips. As one of the largest water consumers within its municipality—discharging an average of 180,000 gallons per day—the potato chip plant needed to cost-effectively and efficiently remove the cooking oil from its wastewater to remain compliant with the municipality’s wastewater regulations.

Emission control and waste management among top priorities for railroad industry today

On February 28, 1827, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad became the first U.S. railway chartered for commercial transport of passengers and freight. 

Key facts about the first U.S. railway include:

• The Tom Thumb steam engine was designed by Peter Cooper
• The first railroad track was only 13 miles long
• Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, laid the first stone when construction on the track began 

(Source: Library of Congress)

Fast-forward 188 years. 

Here is a snapshot of what the railroad industry looks like today:

• 140,000 miles of railroad track
• 21 regional and 510 local railroads
• 221,000 jobs
• The rail network accounts for approximately 40 percent of U.S. freight moved by ton-miles (the length freight travels).

(Source: U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration)

When the sky cries, that’s a natural phenomenon. But when Nature’s pure water mixes with various types of oil and hydraulic fluids or other contaminants, the result is a man-made problem.

Commonly called stormwater runoff, rainwater will flow wherever it wants once it hits Earth. And this characteristic is what makes water troublesome wherever it encounters oil  – in heavy equipment yards, scrap yards, truck and train terminals, oil and gas operations, shipping docks and the like. Water from various types of wash-down operations will behave the same way. 

Recently, an increasing number of companies in the oil and gas industry’s hydraulic fracturing wastewater disposal business have found employing efficient, low-maintenance oil skimming technology can bring sustained improvements to their bottom lines. We’re talking added monthly profits of $3,000 to $18,000. Sound appealing?

Wastewater disposal companies in Texas, West Virginia and Ohio, who have purchased oil skimmers to recover and sell oil that is present in the hydraulic fracturing wastewater being delivered to their facilities, have capitalized on this new revenue within just 2 to 3 months of using the technology. And, that’s not all. In addition to generating new revenue streams and delivering a nearly immediate return-on-investment, oil skimmers used in wastewater disposal applications also reduce operational costs and increase operational efficiency.

“Fracking.” We are all familiar with the term in one way or another as it’s been one of the most discussed and debated media topics as of late. From articles and news segments with titles such as Fracking Draws Support From Unions As Jobs Flourish, Worrying Environmentalists to A Real American Story: Why the Fracking Revolution Happened Here, the “fracking” or “hydraulic fracturing,” conversation is broad.

And, the business is vast. The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimates that there are more than 1 million fracked wells throughout the U.S. and that roughly 80 percent of natural gas wells drilled in the next decade will rely on the popular and effective shale oil and gas extraction technique. (http://cewc.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/ei_shale_gas_regulation120215.pdf)