Hach
Robust Analytical Instrumentation for Oil and Gas Plants

The Covid-19 pandemic had unfortunate impacts on several industries, and the oil and gas industry was no exception. Fluctuations and volatility in oil prices, challenging asset allocations and capital deployment, difficulty in recruiting labor are but a few obstacles that devastated the financial and structural health of the industry. As the sector is slowly getting back on its feet, one problem seems to persist and threaten the operational efficiency of oil and gas plants, which is water contamination. Since a large quantity of water is used in these industrial plants, it is evident that water quality plays a vital role from source water to utilities and production through to wastewater treatment. Monitoring water quality is a critical process to protect assets within the plant and ensure operational efficiency. Explaining its importance, Jonathan Bauer, Vertical Marketing Manager at Hach, adds, “Analysis of contaminated water can be difficult and lead to a breakdown in analytical instrumentation. Operators may lose visibility of critical water quality parameters, leading to unplanned downtime or environmental discharge violations. We design instrumentation that withstands these challenging water matrixes and ensures our customers can be confident in their water analytics.” Hach is a global leader in manufacturing and distributing analytical instruments and reagents for water quality testing. Hach assures compliance, higher efficiency, and waste reduction in the analytical process and offers its products to a vast clientele.

Hach has provided its comprehensive field, laboratory, and online analytical instrumentation services to its customers for over eighty years. Clients can accurately and reliably track the entire water cycle using these services. Bauer adds, “Our users can monitor their source water, utility and wastewater, and the effluent or discharge of that wastewater. We ensure that our customers have complete visibility of their water analysis and meet regulatory compliance.” In addition to this, the company offers software solutions that facilitate predictive maintenance, data collection and management, and real-time control over the analysis processes. The operational efficiency of these solutions is bolstered by the customer support service that Hach offers. “We have online technical support, on-site services, and consultation teams that coordinate with our customers to solve issues within a plant. We have an extensive portfolio of products to meet our customer water quality needs,” adds Randy Fuller, Application Development Manager at Hach. The company serves oil and gas companies, chemical manufacturers, food and beverage, power generation plants, and maritime/aviation businesses. Additionally, the company serves municipal drinking water, and wastewater plants around the world Prevalent among such clients are its proprietary technologies such as BioTector and EZ Series analyzers—highly differentiated products offered by Hach.

BioTector is an online analyzer employed for Total Organic Carbon (TOC) measurement. It can operate in extremely harsh environments and offers exceptional uptime. The analyzer uses a unique chemical oxidation method based on hydroxyl radicals that guarantee high performance and reliability. Adding to this, Fuller says, “In case of contaminations or leaks, BioTector enables plant managers to obtain insight into the situation and react accordingly. This empowers managers to protect their people, assets, and processes within their plants.” Hach’s EZ Series analyzers promote similar analytical insight and detect Water quality parameters such as ATP, toxicity, trace metals, and nutrients. These analyzers offer continuous round-the-clock monitoring of parameters that, historically, were restricted to laboratory analysis.

Equipped with self-cleaning filtration systems, the analyzers ensure uninterrupted service even in harsh and challenging environments. Describing its impressive aspects, Bauer adds, “This series is modular in design and combines various technologies within one platform, where customers can compare the results of the online analysis with their traditional laboratory analysis techniques.” Verifying online instrumentation results alongside laboratory results ensures that the final datasets are accurate. EZ series analyzers utilize five different analysis technologies, including titration, colorimetry, chemiluminescence, ISE, and voltammetry. The solutions are designed such that once the customers are trained to use one instrumentation, they can easily navigate the other products with maximum efficiency. This reduces operator error and simplifies analytical processes. To make the implementation easy, Hach offers Claros—a software solution that provides instrument, data, and process management, wherein clients can conduct predictive diagnostics, visualize data, share information across departments, manage treatment processes in real-time, and minimize chemical dosing.

We're able to provide fast, accurate, reliable results for water analysis that leads to operational efficiency, and protection of capital assets. We enable users to meet regulatory permits and eliminate associated challenges

One of Hach’s clients struggled with water quality issues related to organic effluent loadings, and Hach offered customized solutions to remedy the situation. The water samples collected at the client’s location had large amounts of iron and manganese particles, turning every surface it came in contact with into an orange-red hue. Hach’s team reviewed the situation and developed a solution. They needed to protect the client’s analytical equipment and set up a filtration system to remove the TOC. A dual-stream Hach B7000i TOC analyzer was installed to deliver accurate results to the plant’s operators, empowering them to manage their organics for the foreseeable future.

Hach combines instrumentation, chemistries, service, and software for various such clients to offer a one-stop solution that allows integration, quality control, and robustness in the analytical processes. As Bauer concludes, “We’re able to provide fast, accurate, reliable results for water analysis that leads to operational efficiency, and protection of capital assets. We enable users to meet regulatory permits and eliminate associated challenges. Hach will continue to work with the oil and gas industry, as well as the broader industrial space.”