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Crystal Clearwater Resources
Darcy Presenter
2024 Top Innovator

Crystal Clearwater Resources focuses on wastewater streams across multiple industries using its leading-edge, proprietary Spontaneous Evaporation and Condensation (SPEC) technology. CCR's technology can provide a complete separation of water from suspended and dissolved solids.

Published September 17, 2022 • Updated January 28, 2025
Sustainability
Water, Waste, Spills
Insights
Details
Materials

Product Overview

Overview

Crystal Clearwater Resources (CCR) is a Dallas, TX based clean-tech company focused on creating solutions for hard-to-treat wastewater using its second-generation, Spontaneous Evaporation and Condensation (SPEC) technology.

The SPEC process has been designed to provide a standardized process to treat variable, industrial wastewater streams. Their plant technology can be easily modified to fit site specific limitations. The simple, robust, and efficient technology allows for lower CAPEX and OPEX, uses non-exotic metallurgy, and has a smaller footprint compared to other technologies. SPEC utilizes a modular design which allows for scaling as needed for a specific location or waste stream.

CCR’s team has significant years of experience developing water treatment technologies and working directly within oil & gas operators such as Shell, Devon Energy, Occidental Petroleum, and California Resources Corporation. CCR has worked in U.S. shale basins such as the Permian Basin and thermal operations in California and in Western Canada. The core team also brings diverse experience in Industrial water treatment.

Business Model

CCR follows a variable pricing structure that will establish revenue streams through fit-for-purpose projects with commercial customers. CCR will finance, build, own, and operate.

The pricing structure is based on a per-barrel fee that's dependent on volume, term, and distillate quality.

Technology Innovations

CCR’s step-change technology is flexible, robust, and has been field tested with produced water inlet streams with salinity up to 170,000 ppm TDS. It is an automated and self-regulating process that is resilient to feed and process updates. CCR’s technology differentiates itself from the competition in the following ways:

  • The system has a thermal process that is heat agnostic and capable of utilizing waste heat
  • The system uses little to no pre-treatment and is tolerant of fluctuating thermal heat and feed-water quality inputs
  • The system presents little to no scaling
  • The system concentrates brine up to 290,000 ppm or as per a customer's request up to precipitation

In 2024, CCR’s technology achieved significant advancement in produced water treatment with their Spontaneous Evaporation and Condensation (SPEC) technology in the Permian Basin. The pilots demonstrated:

  • 130 days of 24/7 stable operations
  • 98% uptime
  • Zero pretreatment
  • Treated raw produced water & clean brine (~135,000 ppm TDS)
  • Over 50% recovery of freshwater ready for beneficial reuse
  • Achieved stable brine concentrate of 290,000+ ppm TDS
  • Performance unaffected by variable heat and feed quality
  • Remotely operated
Applications

Each year, oil and gas producers in the U.S. spend billions of dollars on the disposal of produced water. One of the cost efficiencies in oil and gas production depends on the economics of the produced water treatment and disposal. CCR utilizes technology to deliver reduced costs and higher efficiencies through:

  • Lower capital investment
  • Lower operational expenditure
  • Beneficial reuse of freshwater distillate
  • Decreased maintenance costs
  • Remote monitoring
  • Reduction of GHG emissions due to utilization of waste heat when available
  • Reduction of logistics associated with disposal of water
  • Smaller footprint and scalability

In addition to oil and gas produced water, other applications CCR can address include:

  • Reduction of RO brine streams, industrial wastewater treatment
  • Direct lithium extraction (DLE) from concentrated brine
  • High-saline aquifers treatment for carbon sequestration opportunities
  • Deionized water as feedstock for hydrogen production
  • Purified water for beneficial reuse
  • Treatment of PFAS contaminated waters.
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