The Intergulf Corporation, headquartered in the Bayport Industrial Complex on the Gulf Coast in Pasadena, Texas, is a leader in developing innovative technology to reclaim substances that, though waste for some industries, can be recycled into usable products. They then properly treat remaining liquid and solid wastes for safe disposal or recycling. Until the late 1970s, no one thought much about the problems of vessels releasing waste into oceans around the world, other than mandating that discharges occur 50 miles or more offshore. But Channel Bunker Services, which provided fuel to ships in the Gulf of Mexico, created Intergulf to begin blending fuel components back into useful fuel in 1988. Another company, ChemSep, Inc., opened in 1995 to provide liquid waste recycling services to industrial facilities as well as marine vessels in the Port of Houston. The companies merged as Intergulf in 2002. The new company further expanded its scope to treat and dispose of waste water and accept materials from industrial, petrochemical, and transportation facilities. Today, products coming into Intergulf’s facilities include waste water, oil emulsions, used oil, sludges, tank bottoms, municipal sumps/grit traps for road base recycling and recoverable petroleum product streams. “We’re probably the largest player in our niche – we call it industrial liquids management,” said company president Steve Rhyne. “We handle waste, production chemicals and ‘off-spec’ fuels from marine vessels, chemical plants and industrial manufacturing facilities.” Intergulf has two major facilities in the Houston Ship Channel area, employs an average of 100 to 120 people and serves companies throughout the Midwest and Southeast, plus some in the Northeast and even into Canada. “Our largest source of revenue is recycled oil products. We sold a tad over $100 million in products in 2008 1998, the company’s 20th year as Intergulf,” Rhyne said. On the marine side, Intergulf provides services to Gulf ports all along the Texas coastline. Its fleet of Coastguard-approved vacuum trucks, barge and tug boats remove wastes and clean out both transport and fuel tanks on commercial vessels. Its barge can handle up to 10,000 barrels. On land, Intergulf receives materials that formerly went untreated into landfills where they were likely to contaminate soil and groundwater. The company also works with materials that would have, historically, gone through water-treatment systems that weren’t necessarily designed to cope well with some chemicals. After chemical analysis of every load coming in, Intergulf carefully processes as much as possible into reusable products. Remaining wastes are thoroughly cleaned to be discharged as water or safely disposed of as solids to landfills. Materials that were formerly incinerated are also processed, resulting in cleaner air. As Rhyne noted, this isn’t a simple industry. A wide variety of regulations and regulatory agencies play a role granting permits and monitoring Intergulf’s processes, including the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Environmental Protection Agency and international maritime treaties. Intergulf has always been a green business, and is active in developing its industry through trade groups such as the National Oil Recyclers Association (NORA), with a company official currently serving on its board, and National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA). Intergulf is also a member of ACORE, The American Council on Renewable Energy, benefitting from the non-profit’s numerous events and services. As a member of ACORE, Intergulf is able to be a part of the conversation that is elevating the importance of working to save and improve energy resources and the environment. “We eliminate the headaches for companies that end up with wastes that are difficult to handle at their level,” Rhyne said. With its larger scale and sophisticated processes, Intergulf reduces pollution significantly more than companies could do on their own. Its industry is so specialized that Intergulf quite literally couldn’t purchase the majority of the software it needed. “We spent almost two years developing custom software to integrate all the phases of our business, from chemical labs to accounting. There’s a lot of paperwork in our industry,” Rhyne said. Off-spec, sometimes called off-test, fuels, are one example of the recycling process. They are oils that don’t meet the regulations, requirements or quality needed in the original production. Before recycling, they went directly to landfills or incinerators. Instead, now they go to Intergulf, which dehydrates them to remove water and can then use them in a number of commercially-viable products. Intergulf also recycles off-spec solvents, chemicals and products, oil emulsions and a number of other substances. Intergulf sells and trades recycled products primarily in the refinery and petrochemical industries. Products include fuel oil cutter stocks, gasoline blendstocks, oil field chemicals, refinery feedstocks, marine fuels, bright stock (lubricants used in motor oils), and glycols used in some manufacturing processes. While Rhyne expects lower revenues in 2009, he noted that Intergulf just completed three strong years of growth, and is positioned well for continued growth as environmental technologies develop to further reduce pollution. In addition, customer base expansion in the United States and along the Gulf Coast into Mexico will offer further opportunities for addition clients. While the company continues to work for the benefit of the environment, it also promises to participate in innovative thinking, changing and improving its methods as new technologies emerge.