GTECH A ‘NIGHT AND DAY’ DIFFERENCE FOR HIGH QUALITY SEPARATION

When Desert Environmental LLC manager Kyle Wellhausen began assessing the GTech Echo-4 for use in his company’s state-of-the-art tank bottom processing facility in West Texas he discovered GTech had ‘taken all the stuff he disliked about competitors’ machines and fixed it’.

Desert Environmental has just commissioned a new processing facility and associated landfills to manage the increasing demand from the oil industry to recover oil, clean water and reduce the amount of waste they are sending to landfill. The recently established business prides itself on fast and efficient processing and high-quality environmental standards.

Kyle says selecting the GTech Echo-4 to be part of the brand-new facility was a simple choice, with Desert Environmental buying its first 3 phase decanter in May 2023 and its second in June, before ordering two more later that month.

Insightful design

“The machine is actually pretty amazing,” says Kyle. “It's night and day how much better this machine is than anything else I've used.”

“I've used a bunch of different types of centrifuges from different manufacturers. My experience of using all these different machines, after talking with Kevin [Bell GTech CEO] and seeing the changes he's made from the machines I've used in the past, it was it was kind of a no brainer.”

Kyle says GTech’s understanding of the processes required, the working conditions in the industry and the details – big and small – that make separation easier and more efficient are what sets the company’s machines apart.

“One of the biggest changes I've seen on this machine is the internal scraper. On other machines it’s really small – about the size of a quarter. I've had to replace them quite often on pretty much any of the machines that have them,” says Kyle. “GTech took that scraper and made it much larger. We've doubled our throughput on it, and we have not had to replace the scraper.”

“We haven't had any problems with our machine at all, and that's quite different from what you would have found in the past with other machines.”

Kyle says while regular wear is expected in the industry, avoiding that costly extra maintenance is vital, especially with the disruption it can cause. “It’s the downtime that’s the killer.”

Innovative technology

The other innovation that has stood out for Kyle is the automation provided by the GTech Echo 4 control panel.

“So, our previous machines you'd have to shut down, which takes 30 minutes to an hour to have it stop spinning, open it up, make your changes. On a different type of machine you have to climb up the stand and make your adjustment on the skimmer.”

“With the GTech, you don’t have to climb up – you can stay where you are doing your work. If you want to make a change on that skimmer, you just push a button and it's done.”

Kyle says, “as well as vastly improving the preciseness and accuracy of the adjustments, the GTech control panel makes it much easier to train operators.”

“We have three centrifuge operators and in a matter of hours they were able to run the Echo 4 by themselves.”

Reliable supply

“Another main driver for using GTech,” says Kyle, “is before we actually bought the centrifuges and found out how superior they were, we toured the GTech factory, and saw they had a huge range of spare parts.”

“With a lot of the other centrifuges, right now – especially with the supply chain – it's hard to find parts. But GTech has all their spare parts sitting on shelves in Houston and they ship within 48 hours. That was a big driver, especially in the times we're in right now.”

Kyle says given the nature of the materials they process, GTech’s ready supply of spare parts gives his business confidence that they can continue meet the demands of Desert Environmental’s customers.

“The stuff we run through these machines is very abrasive and the tank bottoms we get in are very dirty – it has a lot of solids and things break often. If GTech didn't have the spare parts we needed, we might be shut down for two or three months – as we could be with other machines,” says Kyle.

“Customers don't want to hear, hey, we can't take it for a week or two. When they need their stuff out of their tank battery or off their location, they don't want to wait.”

“Knowing that GTech has the spare parts, and great service,  it gives us the confidence that it’s not going to happen. We relay that to our customers and they like that even better.”

Outstanding service

That service approach is – in Kyle’s experience – reflected in every part of his relationship with GTech.

“One of the best things I think I've found with GTech is if you have a problem, you pick up the phone and call them and they answer right away,” says Kyle. “I've called Kevin many times just because I didn't have somebody else's number. It's not very often you have a CEO pick up phone and walk you through something. But anytime we call anybody at that company, they pick up the phone and they do whatever they can for us.”

"Their service is second to none.”

Ultimately, Kyle believes GTech is the full package – and the ideal partner to help Desert Environmental expand their business and meet their own customers’ expectations for service and quality while reducing everyone’s environmental footprint.

“It's the ease of use. It's user friendly for the people that don't have a lot of experience. I think the design changes that Kevin's made to the actual internal part of the centrifuge are great and, like I said, the service is just incredible.”