Gary Griesenbeck, CEO of Orion Water Solutions, discovered the secret to success early when starting his company in 2016. Competing in the emerging market, Orion treats produced water generated through the oil and gas drilling process and recycles it for reuse in hydraulic fracturing operations.
"It was a natural migration from using fresh water to produced water." — Gary Griesenbeck, CEO, Orion Water Solutions
No matter the water type used, it must be chemically treated to ensure safe use during fracking procedures. Bacteria and other components that contaminate frac water can damage the wellbore and prevent optimal production.
"It is essential to keep naturally occurring bacteria and other contaminants out of the well. We treat 500,000 to 600,000 barrels of water per day." — Gary Griesenbeck
When considering Orion's contribution of treated water per day and pairing that with estimations from other companies and competitors that conduct the same operation, the need to enhance that ability through technology becomes clear.
Building the Platform
Ivan Sager identified the available opportunity and utilized his technical background to establish XPC Water, a company focusing on water chemistry analytics and real-time data alerting. While companies in the space traditionally relied on manual spreadsheets and periodic site visits, XPC Water built a multi-tenant platform that uses advanced pattern recognition to categorize water quality and alert the user of critical spikes.
"Pennies spent on chemicals count when processing massive volumes of water and identifying overdosage or anomalies in the process is critical." — Ivan Sager, Founder, XPC Water
Griesenbeck breaks his company service down into two equally essential services. Orion disinfects water going down the wellbore using chlorine dioxide (CLO2) and then treats the produced water through dissolved air flotation (DAF). XPC Water provides the solution by capturing and monitoring data centrally.
The XPC platform records and reports all essential cost and performance data for each job site. This includes downtime, pump pressure, flow rates, chemical usage, and water quality metrics. With XPC's ability to provide accurate data that can be managed in real-time, the operator can correctly add chemicals and treat water as needed.
"Staying on top of chemical usage greatly enhances efficiency and is often a make or break for operators." — Ivan Sager
Frictionless Integration
How Orion generates data that is acquired by XPC has no relevance. Data cultivation is triggered on the XPC side of the equation. As a result, XPC's technology can be integrated with any data processing platform and is not restricted to a specific hardware or software stack.
"Our goal is to remove friction and be the bridge to allow secure and rapid data collaboration. We simply integrate with other platforms. We format the data, and then the user has access to everything." — Ivan Sager
The Future: AI and Machine Learning
Building upon the foundation of what XPC and Orion offer the industry, the company is developing artificial intelligence capabilities that will further enhance operational efficiency.
"AI is machine learning algorithms, and that data helps predict spikes and forecast chemical usage. Generative AI will allow the operator to generate detailed content from the data that would otherwise require significant time." — Ivan Sager
The push for remote operations will require technology to support rapid data acquisition and analysis. XPC's platform enables such a process. With over 218 million barrels of water processed, XPC has perfected the niche in enabling efficiency and profitability in water treatment capabilities.
"Anyone using chemistry can benefit from the XPC platform. Storage facilities, retailers and collection batteries for saltwater could all see ideal results." — Gary Griesenbeck
Originally published in Energies Media Magazine. Photos courtesy of XPC Water Solutions.