WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., June 8, 2017 — West Liberty University recently received a $60,000 grant from NASA – West Virginia Space Grant Consortium to develop ways to control scaling in the oilfield industry. A joint university-industry grant, it partners with local company, Klear LLC, located at 183 North River Rd., Wheeling.
Dr. Douglas L. Swartz II, associate professor of chemistry and Robert Games of Klear are the grant writers and will lead the work.
“I congratulate Dr. Swartz for his grant award and look forward to following his research and the outcome of this project that can benefit the community. This is a good example of the academic opportunities that exist at West Liberty University,” said Dr. Stephen Greiner, WLU president.
“We were awarded the grant to develop new treatment protocols for scale control in oilfield applications. We will explore ways to make new inhibitors to slow salt formation for hydraulic fracturing projects,” explained Swartz.
“Klear has been working on novel approaches to scaling issues that have plagued the oilfield, especially in the Utica and Marcellus Shale plays,” Games explained. Klear was established in 2001.
“This grant allows us the opportunity to further explore some of these ideas. It also gives West Liberty University students the chance to apply the chemistry they are learning in the classroom with real world applications. We are extremely excited to receive the grant and look forward to the developments this funding will provide,” he continued.
Klear is donating materials and testing services for the term of the one-year grant and research. Klear manufactures and distributes exclusive water treatment additives for steam boilers, cooling towers, wastewater, potable water, and process water for the oil and gas industries.
“This goal of this project is to prepare novel scale inhibitors and formulations to treat scale deposits in hydraulic fracturing gas and oil producing wells. The formation of scale deposits can build up on the inner walls of a well pipelines and oilfield production equipment due to changes in pH, temperature, water volume, flow rates, and the degree of saturation of dissolved metal ions. Rather than treat scale oilfield pipelines blocked or damaged by scale, it is advantageous to prevent the occurrence of scale by using chemical scale inhibitors,” Swartz explained.
Two WLU students, Thomas Nagy, a rising sophomore chemistry major, and Emily DeTemple, a rising senior chemistry major, will be working on the project during summer 2017. The grant also provides funding to have one student work on this project for the duration of the 2017-2018 academic year.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to work on this project under Dr. Swartz and Mr. Games. Seeing the research I conduct in the lab being used to solve problems in real industries, such as the oilfield, makes this opportunity all the more rewarding,” said DeTemple.
“These students will learn common treatments associated with oilfield industry and prepare new scale treatment inhibitors and formulary solutions. It is a wonderful opportunity for them to receive training that will help them in their chosen fields,” Swartz added.
Swartz is co-chair of the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in the College of Sciences at WLU.
West Liberty University is a forward-looking, four-year public university steeped in a rich heritage as West Virginia’s oldest institution of higher education and offering nearly 70 undergraduate majors and 30 programs. Graduate programs include the Master of Arts in Education, the Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies, the Master of Professional Studies, the Master of Science in Criminology and the online MBA degrees. For more information on WLU, please call 1.866.WESTLIB or visit westliberty.edu.