June 2021
What's News
In the first half of 2021, the CIRCON family has already seen significant growth in its ability to deliver sustainable services to an increasingly large geographic area and customer base. In March, we acquired Bealine Environmental Services. By joining forces with the Pasadena, Texas-based operation, we’ve expanded our Centralized Waste Treatment capabilities, as well as our presence in the Gulf Coast area.
In April, our acquisition of Water Integrated Treatment Systems (WITS) further stretched those CWT capabilities to the Midwest. WITS operates two CWT facilities — one in Dolton, Illinois, and a second in Kenosha, WI — and has rapidly scaled its operation in recent years, capturing significant and valuable portions of the Chicago and Milwaukee markets.
“Now, CIRCON has four facilities, collectively, across the Midwest,” says Karamath Khan, who joined CIRCON from WITS and serves as VP of business development and sales in the region. “We have more logistical advantages, a larger fleet, a more comprehensive suite of solutions — it really creates a market dominance, and a more diversified offering through which we can serve our clients.”
That amplified presence in the Midwest will help to further spread CIRCON’s message of sustainability. “CIRCON continues to be committed to expanding in both new and existing geographies to better serve its customers and deliver a greater level of sustainable services with quantifiable metrics,” says CIRCON CEO Frank Iezzi.
For Khan, the acquisition creates a better way to work with customers. “We can talk to folks about sustainability goals, about true recycling, and about different initiatives that are important both on the corporate level and the multi-location level,” he says. “It allows us to have larger conversations of impact.”
By bringing these both WITS and Bealine into the CIRCON community, we’re able to share our message and commitment to sustainability with a wider portion of our industry. Because together, we can innovate to create a greener tomorrow.
Did You Know?
We’re all about sustainability here at CIRCON. But because we want to truly walk the walk, we’ve been looking at ways our team can do more to support our green mission, making sure that we’re doing all we can to support our planet — even beyond the great work and quantifiable results that we help our clients achieve.
In April, to celebrate Earth Day — the 2021 theme of which was “Restore our Earth” — members of our team spent the afternoon planting eight new crepe myrtle trees at CIRCON’s La Porte, Texas, headquarters. Those eight trees represent the eight pillars of CIRCON, which stand for our own commitment to finding a better way to do business and support both our planet and our clients.
Those baby trees will fully mature in just seven years, and as we watch them grow, we know that CIRCON’s mission will be blossoming, too. Every year moving forward, at each of our facilities, an additional eight trees will be planted to represent our own growth. This project is just one small step for our team, and throughout the month of July, a new company initiative called Sustainable Steps will encourage CIRCON employees to document all the ways that they support sustainability in their own daily lives, and to share pictures of those actions with our team. It’s those tiny but thoughtful choices that can help us all — together —find a better way.
Three Questions with Daniel Andrews
As the vice president of refinery services at CIRCON Environmental, Daniel Andrews is no stranger to tough jobs. Heading up the company’s tank-cleaning work, after all, is all about turning waste into something of true value. As the industry encounters an increasing amount of pressure to minimize its impact on the planet and lean into green, sustainable solutions, Andrews and his team will be ready and waiting, eager to show clients and customers a better way.
What’s the Refinery Services Group been working on these days, and what’s keeping you guys on your toes?
CIRCON’s RSG has always been known for innovation, and our bread and butter is large project work. We’re currently working on a project in Pasadena, an old refinery that’s been bought out, and the client is demolishing several tanks that have been sitting and haven’t been cleaned for probably 20, even 30 years. The amount of solids we’ve managed to get out is impressive, probably 30 million pounds. It’s taken a number of approaches and we have had some problems come up, but we’ve been able to adjust. That’s really the word for our group—adjust is what we do, and we do it on the fly.
That sounds daunting with a job that size. What were some of the challenges that popped up unexpectedly?
We ran into boulder-like material in the tank that would not process and couldn’t be blended into a fuel. Normally, that would kill the whole project. But this job is so unusual in its magnitude — it’s the kind of job you only see every few years — and our guys were fast on their feet. They found a unique shredder up in Chicago, sent someone up there with a trailer, bought it, and used it to bring the particles down to a size that we could handle. We thought it could work, and it did. It was important for us to find a way to get that material to our cement kiln partners rather than just disposed of in an unsustainable way.
It’s been a tumultuous time for the industry. How does this kind of work translate to real results and forward motion for your clients and partners?
For example, our cement kiln partner that took the bulk of the material from this job is Buzzi Unicem in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. We met with them last week, and they’re at roughly 70 percent fuel substitution. And what that means is, that kiln runs on coal all year long, but we’ve been able to send enough quality waste-derived fuel to help them substitute 70 percent of that coal. So they’re using coal for just 30 percent of their work. And that’s why it’s so important for us to find a way—a better way—to access material and make sure it’s suitable for sustainable disposal.