Altiras Recovery Develops Process to Create Crude Oil Asphalt Binder

Todd Pencarinha is a Texas-based professional with nearly three decades of experience in project management, chemical engineering, and business development. Since December of 2010, Todd Pencarinha has served as president of Altiras, a company that develops beneficial use/reuse solutions for chemicals and petroleum products from businesses in a variety of sectors. 

Altiras has made significant advances in sustainable chemical management and beneficial reuse, leveraging existing reuse strategies and developing innovative new processes. In 2015, Altiras subsidiary Altiras Recovery announced the development of a proprietary process that extracts heavy crude oil from bodies of water while creating a useful new by-product. 

Altiras Recovery developed the innovation to aid the cleanup of Mexican lagoons heavily impacted by oil spills and dumping practices before modern environmental regulations. In one site spanning 600 acres, the pond contained an astonishing 400,000 cubic meters of Mexican crude oil before cleanup efforts began. Altiras Recovery developed proprietary methods to efficiently extract the heavy crude oil while removing water and solids, and another process to convert the crude oil into a usable asphalt binder, thereby benefiting the environment while helping create high-quality road materials.