Log in
Cancel
Top tips
Drilling mud management:
Transforming waste into new resources
Thermal desorption porcess
At Repsol, we apply circular economy criteria to all of our operations and assets wherever we operate. One of the techniques we use is thermal desorption to treat drilling mud generated during the exploration phase.
This technique, which is applied at our Caipipendi field in Bolivia, enables us to obtain from waste, such as drilling mud, two new resources: fuel and water, which are fed back in separately and with different purposes into the processes.
What does this technique consist of?
Thermal desorption is a process in which drilling cuttings are heated (with initial concentrations of hydrocarbons between 5-50%) until reaching temperatures between 95 and 500°C, allowing evaporation and condensation of water and hydrocarbon. This enables us to obtain a dry solid material (ash) with a lower hydrocarbon content.
Benefits of this initiative
The advantages of using the thermal desorption technique are:
Reusing water and fuel
Consume less virgin raw materials by reusing the water and fuel extracted from waste treatment.
Creating less waste
Reducing the amount of final waste therefore reduces the environmental footprint.
