Black Sand's Permian mines are designed to maximize water usage throughout the frac sand manufacturing process. Two 1-million-gallon freshwater holding tanks feed the system in a closed-loop to wash and sort sand, which results in a continual source of used turbid water. Instead of routing the used, turbid water into settling ponds, our system captures it in a settling tank where solids are concentrated into a mud containing anywhere from 25 to 35 percent solids. Next, this mud is pumped at high pressures into filter press membranes where filter press technology squeezes water out of the solids. Thus, instead of losing water to evaporation and ground seepage, our system feeds this recovered water back into the holding tanks to be used again and again. In addition, our wet sand is stored in a specially-designed decant building while awaiting final processing in the dryers. This step helps prevent water evaporation while promoting efficient draining; as water drains from the sand, that water is funneled through a drainage system in the floor directly back into the holding tanks. And, by promoting better drainage before the drying process, we save energy because our sand requires less energy to be dried.

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