Eureka Resources granted three patents

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently issued three patents to Williamsport-based Eureka Resources, a company that uses technology to reclaim water.

The patents are for processes that analyze the chemical characteristics of oil and gas wastewater, sort and direct the wastewater, and extract lithium and other valuable minerals and fresh water.

The technology could supply approximately 25 percent of the nation’s demand annually, the company said, from only the wastewater produced from Marcellus-region oil and gas producers.

“Eureka is the only company that offers ecologically sound water-disposal services to oil and gas producers, allowing them to avoid the wasteful and potentially harmful injection of wastewater into oil and gas injection wells,” Daniel Ertel, Eureka’s CEO, said. “In addition, we’ve relied for too long on other countries’ often unreliable supply chains for many products and materials necessary for U.S. security, productivity, and economic growth. Eureka is committed to helping the country improve and strengthen domestic sources of critical minerals by extracting them from oil and gas wastewater.”

The company has three wastewater treatment facilities near the Marcellus Shale that extract oil, methanol, calcium chloride, salt, and lithium from wastewater.

By 2023, the company plans expansion into the Bakken, Barnett, Haynesville, and Permian shale basins.