December 2024 Vol. 79 No. 12
Features
First Look: Liquid mud-drying compound turns drilling mud into easily disposable solid
(UI) — Since 2017, Right Turn Supply has been a premier provider of drilling fluids and expert solutions to a variety of industries, including horizontal directional drilling – and is not new to innovation.
“But this type of innovation, we see as industry-changing,” Co-founder and Partner Jon Heinen said. “In fact, every time we demo this product with a customer, it’s a jaw-dropping moment where they don’t believe they can put a liquid into a liquid and get a solid.”
But that’s exactly what they can do now with Liquid EnviroDry – a liquid mud-drying compound that can be used to solidify vacuum excavation cuttings.
Much of the time, the liquid byproduct of construction is safe; but generally throughout the US and Canada, it’s becoming much more difficult to dump a liquid byproduct because of concerns that it might leach into waterways.
“But a solid byproduct can be dumped almost anywhere for a fraction of the cost of a liquid recycling facility,” Heinen said. “By adding Liquid EnviroDry as we are running the vacuum excavator, it solidifies everything in the tank while we’re working, allowing you to drive it to say, a landfill, and easily dispose of it afterward.”
Right Turn Supply already has a granular version of the same product, which works well and is popular on the market, but still has limitations. Heinen explained the difference as an analogy of powdered versus liquid drink mixes, where the former must be violently shaken to really mix into the water, while the latter mixes instantly.
“The powders work really well, but they’re hard to mix in and can be challenging to apply,” Heinen said of the EnviroDry. “I’ve been waiting on other manufacturers to try and create this liquid version of that liquid solidification or drying agent for years, and no one’s really perfected it.”
Right Turn Supply did just that on Nov. 1, 2023.
Fast start
“It was later in the day, and we had a little gap in our production schedule, and I went back there and said, ‘We know how to do this with other products,’” Heinen said. “We started to play around with the concept, and sure enough, we were able to create it right here in our shop.”
Since then, they’ve been able to replicate it many times, and each time Liquid EnviroDry has proven to be an industry-changing product.
Heinen and production manager Jordan Pinegar saw success the first time they attempted to create the liquid product, based on knowledge they’d already gleaned from blending other products, he said.
“This one’s a little more challenging than the others because of the weight and the particle size, but it worked the first time. Then we adjusted the recipe a couple different times and tried it again, and then we just dialed in the exact ratio,” Heinen said. “Since that time, we’ve been issued a provisional patent on the product, and we are now cleared to go to market and advertise it and test it, and most importantly, get it into customers’ hands.”
Liquid EnviroDry is now commercially available. In early September, Right Turn Supply entered into a partnership with Vermeer Corporation, which will allow Vermeer to distribute Right Turn Supply’s drilling fluids, drilling additives and complementary products, including Liquid EnviroDry.
“The huge benefit of the partnership with Vermeer is now we have hundreds of stores that can carry this product,” Heinen said. “Having a local supply of this product in all the markets where it’s needed will be a huge advantage.”
Liquid EnviroDry is available in three sizes: a half-gallon jug, a five-gallon bucket or as an IBC tote.
“We anticipate that the five-gallon bucket will solidify the standard trailer vac tank, which ranges between, say, 500 gallons and 800 gallons,” Heinen said. “A rule of thumb is about one gallon per 100 gallons of spoil, roughly.”
Misters
Right Turn Supply is extremely excited about this new innovation — and there’s more in the works.
“One of our other ideas is to set up misters coming off the shaker decks to mist the cuttings as they roll off and go into a container,” Heinen said. “In the past, if you were going to solidify, it would take a separate process of pouring the powder in the top and mixing it in with an excavator, requiring a very expensive piece of equipment that’s supposed to be digging to produce income, to just sit there mixing to contain the waste.
“Our goal is to do that automatically, allowing the machine to be used for production instead of cleanup.”
They’ve done trials to know that misters will work, and plan to execute a system this winter, he added.
Liquid EnviroDry is a unique product and so much easier to use than what’s currently available on the market, and it will hugely benefit the industry.
“It’ll be more user-friendly, and I think we’ll be able to save contractors a lot of money on the disposal of the byproduct of construction,” Heinen said. “To me, that is a huge win.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Right Turn Supply, (641) 204-0205, rightturnsupply.com/product/liquid-envirodry
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