Environmentalist Brad Komishke finds ways to improve environmental performance from within the walls of industry

In 1989, Brad Komishke was working at Husky Energy’s asphalt refinery in Llyodminster, Alberta, doing analytical support, when he volunteered on a project with the focus to use moss to clean up asphalt spills at the plant. There weren’t too many options for disposal at the time, and Komishke wanted to find an effective method. So, he gave his time to help come up with a way to get the natural bugs from moss to eat up a spill.

Things went a little slower than expected. During the experiments, the bugs were not producing at a fast enough rate. The system was proven to work, but it lacked efficiency and speed. Studying the tanks that housed the mixture of bugs and asphalt, Komishke considered ways to speed up growth.

He remembered his fish tank at home. Taking an aeration pump, he blasted oxygen into the tanks. They were in business. It was efficient. They did it. No more asphalt in the landfills, no more burning the stuff. There was positive impact on the environment that came from within the walls of industry, not outside of it. “That’s when I realized what kind of impact I could have working from within an oil company,” says Komishke.

Change from within

Boston College Law School has a quotation in its draft advising on how to find the right job upon graduation, under the heading Lifestyle Considerations:

“You need to determine exactly what type of job you would like, where you would like to do it, and how your particular lifestyle will affect the choice you make. Too often, people look for a job doing something which is contrary to their basic beliefs (e.g., an environmentalist working for an oil company, or someone interested in public interest law who accepts a position in a large corporate law firm).”

Komishke challenges this notion—it’s exactly what drove him into science in the first place. As a summer student working for Gulf Canada checking wellheads and performing production duties, he saw and experienced the need for chemists, chemistry research and its application in the field.

After graduating from the University of Alberta with an undergraduate degree in chemistry, Komishke landed a role as a researcher at the Alberta Research Council. Working with Dean Wallace, one of his early mentors, he delved into oilsands and heavy oil research. After a short time he again saw the need to take the research that was available and apply it to working facilities.

A keen sense for the patterns of science and an ability to reach out beyond a lab and connect newly developed technology to the field, combined with passion for the environment, has taken Komishke to Shell Canada, where he oversees a state-of-the-art extraction lab at the company’s Calgary Research Centre (CRC).

This is no ordinary research facility. The whole building is dedicated to the environment, from the Prius hybrid car parked in the lot to a recycling program that strives to leave nothing to waste. Shell promotes the diverse talents of the over 200 scientists, engineers, and technologists at the CRC.

One of the research programs Komishke is involved in at the CRC is to develop a novel process for oilsands extraction.

“Traditionally, what was good for extraction was bad for tailings, and what was good for tailings was bad for extraction,” he explains. “We’re trying to break that paradigm and find process aides that are good for both.”

Komishke’s team is bench testing different chemicals in hopes to replace caustic, which is used in the extraction of the bitumen from the sands and clays, and help minimize the naphthenic acids that are ionized during the extraction process.

The caustic jumps in to separate the oil from the sand and clays, but in doing so steals a hydrogen ion from the naphthenic acids. This leads to the acids dissolving into the water, thus creating those toxic tailings everyone talks about. If successful, Komishke’s work will change the nature of tailings away from toxicity. Among the possible benefits include a higher percentage of bitumen produced, a reduced footprint, and less emissions throughout the entire mine.

“One per cent more bitumen means less trucks, less disturbance, less tailings, less emissions,” says Komishke. “By getting more out of less, that’s why I’m an environmentalist.”

Komishke joined Shell Canada in 1996, where he found a belief system within which he could thrive. There he gets to take the technologies that are perfected in the lab and apply them out in the field, making connections and shifting paradigms.

“I’m just a lab guy out in the field. I take what brilliant people do in the lab and apply it.”

Rob Birkholz, manager of technology development for oilsands extraction at Shell and Komishke’s boss, talks about being an environmentalist: “There are those that bring awareness, and those that work towards finding a solution to those problems. Brad is one of those people who contribute to the solution. You can wave a banner or you can contribute.”

Komishke notes, “The main goal is to provide the public with what they are asking for in the most environmentally sustaining way. Here, they walk the talk.”

The lab is also working on improving another part of the extraction process relating to yield stress factors. That is, trying to make the clays, fines, and sands in tailings settle evenly and tightly rather than have the sands fall through to the bottom, creating the problem of top solid layers of clays.

“Mother Nature had 119 million years to compress this stuff, and we’re trying to do it in six months,” Komishke says. “We’re looking for a process to allow tailings to dewater and compact with the sand and clay staying together. All this will help speed up reclamation.”

If you ever visit the Calgary Research Centre, be prepared for Komishke’s sharp eye for environmental and safety infractions. Keep your hands on the stair railings at all times, save those coffee grounds for the compost, wear your safety glasses. Expect to walk the talk.

You will see testing on a new froth treatment system that uses sonic-acoustic wave technology to see if sound waves can be used to reduce viscosity.

There is a recycling container for every need, with eyewash stations and fire hydrants always within reach. A special corridor even exists between the labs so that any transfer of materials is conducted within a contained space.

Komishke and many others are working to create a more environmentally friendly and sustainable way of producing and using hydrocarbons. There is no denying the necessity for oil; it has become a factor in almost everything we do and use. It takes special kinds of people to shift paradigms and change the way things are done. Only dedicated, creative, and the most humble of people can pull it off.

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