Oojagaree Jagoo, Managing Director of Ecosol and OJ’s Electrical, has created what he calls a sustainable, environmental innovation to the oil and gas waste disposal industry in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Ecosol facility, located in Carapal in south Trinidad, is nested deep in the forest in Palo Seco. When you enter the compound, there is nothing that signals that you are entering a waste disposal facility.
Jagoo takes pride in the fact that the facility has no stench, no smoke and no dirty areas at all. Everything is very clean and neatly laid out. The facility takes waste liquids from the oil and gas sector and disposes of them in an environmentally friendly way.
According to Jagoo, ‘We utilise two liquid thermal oxidisers at the core of our services. Waste is stored in industrially approved storage units and piped to our oxidisers where our technology allows for controls to ensure environmentally friendly oxidation’.
The facility was established approximately five years ago, and according to Jagoo, at the time, the alternative was to dump the waste liquids. He developed the technology to ensure that the waste disposal could be done in a sustainable way to avoid environmental contamination.
He said that the facility has the capacity to receive, analyse and oxidise waste 24 hours a day, accommodating routine waste disposal emergencies and turnaround services.
The company provides safe and efficient collection and transportation of liquid waste from industrial facilities straight to Carapal. The transport team is well trained in handling the hazardous waste materials, focusing on safety, efficiency and environmental preservation.
At the facility, there is also an on-site analytical laboratory that conducts elemental analysis. The lab was custom designed for the facility. Jagoo said that it is capable of quickly performing elemental waste profile analysis, which helps ensure that safe and effective operations and waste profiling are carried out at all times.
The lab team was trained and is highly sensitised to the needs of the industry, and is proficient in lab tests and all the activities in line with the strict quality control standards of the industry, making sure that the job is done right and done well.
The Ecosol team also double down on the cleanliness of the facility by growing a variety of fruits and vegetables in the center of the compound. They grow lettuce, pineapples, guava, plantains and other seasonal fruits and vegetables. The produce is harvested by the staff and is distributed to families in the neighboring community.
Jagoo added that the facility was built using recycled materials. According to Jagoo, the office building, fencing, walkways and even the base of the oxidisers were all made using scrap materials from the then proposed Alutrint facility.
Jagoo has ambitions of improving the energy efficiency of the facility in the future. He plans to capture the waste heat from the oxidisers and use it to generate power for the facility. He estimates that he can generate approximately 10mw of power by using waste heat.