DOING ECO Electric Heating Pyrolysis Machine for Oil-Based Drilling Cuttings Successfully Commissioned in Inner Mongolia, China

In May 2026, DOING ECO installed a custom 10 m³ electric heating pyrolysis machine for oil-based drilling cuttings in Inner Mongolia, China.

DOING ECO electric heating oil-based drilling cuttings pyrolysis plant installed in Inner Mongolia

The client is an Inner Mongolia-based drilling fluids service provider operating long-term in Xinjiang oilfields. Each well typically takes 3–6 months to complete, and the company’s service scope covers a wide geographical area.

As China's environmental regulations on oilfields have tightened, proper disposal of oil-based drilling cuttings has become a key requirement for winning contracts in oilfield tenders. The client needed a reliable pyrolysis machine to process the cuttings and recover usable oil — not just to meet discharge standards, but to reinvest the recovered white oil and diesel back into the drilling fluid circulation system.

The project has three hard requirements:

Technical Challenges: First Electric Heating Pyrolysis Machine, No Ready-Made Reference

This project marked DOING ECO's first practical application of an electric heating pyrolysis machine — there was no established case to reference, which made the technical verification process longer and more demanding. The team identified three core challenges:

Challenge 1: The coking problem. Oil-based cuttings carry polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, resins, and asphaltenes — heavy, sticky compounds that love to form coke deposits on hot surfaces. If a reactor runs unevenly, some areas get hotter than others. Wherever the temperature spikes, coke starts to build up on the reactor wall. That reduces heat transfer, increases energy consumption, and eventually means an unplanned shutdown to clean things out.

Caking phenomena occurring during the pyrolysis of oily sludge

Challenge 2: The corrosion problem. These cuttings are not just oily — they are chemically aggressive. Standard carbon steel reactor material will hold up for a while, but not indefinitely in this environment. Choosing the wrong material from the start is a mistake you only discover halfway through the machine’s expected lifespan.

Challenge 3: No existing parameters. This was DOING ECO's first electric heating pyrolysis machine applied specifically to oil-based drilling cuttings. There were no published process parameters to pull off a shelf, no standard cycle times to quote with confidence. Everything had to be worked out from the actual material, which meant more testing, more back-and-forth, and a longer development timeline than a routine order.

DOING ECO electric heating oil-based drilling cuttings pyrolysis plant installed in Inner Mongolia site

How DOING ECO Approached Each Problem

DOING ECO did not start by sending a catalogue. First, they sent engineers.

A technical team visited the client's site, walked the existing equipment, watched the disposal process in operation, and asked questions about the real feed characteristics — not just what the lab report said, but what showed up in practice day to day. That field visit shaped everything that came after.

The final configuration addressed each challenge directly:

A mechanical scraper built for the job. Rather than relying on temperature control alone to prevent coking, DOING ECO designed a mechanical scraping system integrated into the reactor wall. As the pyrolysis machine runs, the scraper continuously clears coke deposits from the inner surface, keeping heat transfer consistent and extending the time between maintenance stops.

Reactor material selected for the specific chemistry. DOING ECO specified an alloy that handles high temperature, resists chemical attack from the cuttings, and tolerates the thermal cycling that comes with stop-start or load-change conditions. The material choice was driven by the actual chemical profile of the client's cuttings, not a generic datasheet assumption.

Design validated before fabrication. With data from the site visit in hand, the team ran structural simulations on the pyrolysis machine layout before committing to a final design. The goal was to make sure the machine would fit the client's physical site, work with their existing handling workflow, and perform within the 120 m² footprint and 500 kW power constraints they had already set.

DOING ECO engineers conduct on-site simulated survey

DOING ECO engineers are on-site in Inner Mongolia, commissioning and testing the equipment

Why the Client Chose DOING ECO

During supplier evaluation, the client visited multiple pyrolysis machine manufacturers before deciding to work with DOING ECO. The decision was based on three factors:

Technical depth over speed: DOING ECO's engineers did not rush to present a proposal. Instead, they went to the site first to understand the client's existing equipment and the real characteristics of the oil-based cuttings — a step the client later cited as a key reason for their trust.

Established platform with reliable after-sales support: The client assessed that DOING ECO's scale and structure meant any issues after delivery could be resolved quickly, which mattered for a field operation far from the factory.

Custom engineering capability: The client manages 45 oil wells and needed a high degree of customization. DOING ECO's proposal was specific to the client's actual operating conditions rather than a generic off-the-shelf offer.

The site of the Inner Mongolia electric-heating oil-based drill cuttings pyrolysis project at night

As of May 2026, the 10 m³ electric heating pyrolysis machine for oil-based drilling cuttings was in its final installation stage on-site in the Inner Mongolia, China.