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By Adelina Voutchkova-Kostal, Director of Sustainable Development, ACS, and Isamir Martinez, Sr. Portfolio Manager, ACS Green Chemistry Institute
The ACS GCI Oilfield Chemistry Roundtable has made great strides in helping to implement green chemistry practices into the industry but now needs to join forces with oil and gas operators to develop synergies across the supply chain.
The ACS GCI Oilfield Chemistry Roundtable (OCR), established in 2014, is a partnership between the GCI and corporations united by a shared commitment to integrate the principles of green and sustainable chemistry and engineering into oilfield development and production. The OCR is a science-focused forum that provides member companies a collective platform to prioritize research needs, inform the research agenda, and leverage resources toward the design and implementation of green chemistry and engineering tools specific to the industry. Current members are BASF, Brenntag, CES Energy Solutions, Locus Bio-Energy Solutions, NexTier, Rockwater Energy Solutions, SNF, and most recently, we welcomed Solvay.
Over the past eight years, the Roundtable has focused on examining chemistries and water management practices to identify more environmentally benign alternatives or replacements. These challenges and innovation gaps that need to be filled were summarized in an article published in Energy & Fuels. The roundtable has also initiated a grants program for academics. As an example, a grant to develop safe and degradable alternatives for friction reducers was awarded to Paula Diaconescu at UCLA to explore incorporating biodegradable elements into a polyacrylamide structure of friction reducers.
While seeking to develop innovative new technologies, the roundtable member companies acknowledge that sustainability improvements to the industry require the adoption of safer, more degradable chemistries across the supply chain, and more specifically, by rig operators. While these companies do not develop the chemistry themselves, they make purchasing decisions that impact the supply of safer chemicals and water recycling systems that are critical to minimizing the environmental impact of the industry.
If you are an industry operator, please join us for a discussion of the sustainability challenges of your company and how cooperation across the supply chain with the ACS GCI Oilfield Chemistry Roundtable can minimize the environmental impact of the industry. Contact us at gciroundtables@acs.org.
