A new water treatment technology born of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill is making its way to the Permian Basin.

MYCELX founder Hal Alper developed the MYCELX polymer, a material that permanently and chemically bonds hydrocarbons on contact rather than simply filtering them. In 1994, he co-founded MYCELX Technologies with petroleum industry veteran John Mansfield Sr. The company has since grown from a single polymer innovation into a global water treatment provider with expertise in produced water treatment across onshore and offshore operations.

Following successful deployments worldwide, the company recently shifted its strategy to focus on the Permian Basin, citing the value creation and performance improvements its technology delivers in produced water treatment.

MYCELX offers two primary treatment systems for Permian Basin clients that work together, said Garrett Rasor, business development manager for oil and gas.

One is the MAC — MYCELX Advanced Coalescer — and the second is REGEN, the Regenerative Media Filter. Combined, the technologies can recover 99% sales-quality oil from produced water while also collecting suspended solids. Rasor said the treatment could be used before the water is sent to saltwater disposal wells.

Rasor said the systems can also be used as pretreatment for technologies that process produced water for beneficial reuse, desalination or evaporation.

REGEN is a backwashable media filter that generates recycle-quality water that can be placed in a frac pond or sold to a midstream or treatment company. He said the system operates within a small footprint.

The two technologies are also cost-effective because they require no chemicals, produce no emissions and require no labor because they are automated.

Jim Weidler, executive vice president of business development, said the company was awarded its first field-scale project using REGEN in the Permian Basin in November by a major midstream operator. It will begin operations in the third or fourth quarter, he said.

Weidler called the project the company’s showcase and said it is generating significant interest, along with the MAC technology.

The company recently conducted a pilot study with a supermajor operator in the Delaware Basin using the two-stage MAC and REGEN system to increase oil recovery, reduce solids and meet recycle water quality specifications. After three months and 55 days of data collection, the company found the paired technologies were able to receive produced fluids from the pipeline and exceed the less-than-15-parts-per-million specification for oil and grease, with an average effluent oil-in-water measurement of 11.64 parts per million.

In the future, Weidler said the company hopes to offer its PFAS treatment technology to the Permian Basin.