Produced Water Solution Brings Together Two Industries

The Wyoming firm Encore Green Environmental is pairing produced water from oil and gas companies with agriculture customers. 

According to MRT, Marvin Nash, general manager of Encore Green Environmental, promoted a solution to match the oil and gas industry with the agriculture industry during the Produced Water Society Permian Basin conference. Nash saida partnership with Cody Wilson Farms in Midkiff, Wyo. will be the solution’s first test.

Nash grew up in South Texas where agriculture naturally is a large market, and he then was introduced to produced water when he joined EGO Resources.

“To us, it’s not produced water; it’s a byproduct,” Nash said to MRT. 

Nash created the Conservation-By-Design method which cleans water in proximity to a well and then applies it to the surrounding area for grassland and vegetation growth, according to MRT. The method uses software to track the water to its origin to also see how many wells are on each section of land and how much water and oil each well can produce. 

According to MRT, the method also addresses concerns about water quality as it relates to discharge underground. Nash said the method tests the soil near the oil well and then the produced water is tested to see if it matches the soil’s DNA for vegetation growth. Sites are tested every three months to ensure the water and soil makeup has not changed, he added.

Cody Wilson Farms will add a different element to the project, however, as, the farms will use concentrated solar power to turn the flow of water into steam to generate electricity in a turbine, according to MRT. Revenue will be used for electricity and water, which primarily will be used for hydraulic fracturing at oil refineries, according to MRT.

“And we haven’t even gotten to the carbon capture aspect,” Nash said, according to MRT. 

The enriched soil, Nash said, produces greater vegetation, which removes carbon from the air through photosynthesis.