Generator · Chemical plant

Weekly spent-caustic purge at a Channelview chemical plant

A 150-bbl spent-caustic purge happens every Monday. Before Dispo, it lived in three text threads with three different haulers across two years of turnover. Here's what changed.

The situation

A mid-size chemical plant in Channelview generates spent caustic (pH > 13, some phenolic load) on a weekly cadence. The plant's ops manager had been sourcing the disposal through whichever vac-truck hauler happened to be available, communicating the pickup window and volume via text message. When the hauler got the job, they'd send an invoice a week later — and the ops manager would scroll through text messages to verify the agreed rate.

The process was painful in three recurring ways:

Billing surprises. The hauler charged $140/hr; the ops manager remembered agreeing to $120/hr; the text thread was ambiguous.
Volume creep. Sometimes the load was 200 bbls instead of 150; sometimes two trailers were needed; the invoice reflected that, but there was no pre-authorization.
Regulator reporting. Quarterly, the ops manager had to scrape dates, volumes, and waste codes out of text threads and supplier invoices to prep the TCEQ filing. It took a day.

Moving it to Dispo

Monday morning, 7 AM: the ops manager opens Dispo, picks the saved location (“Channelview — North caustic tank farm”), and selects the saved waste stream template (“Weekly spent-caustic purge, ~150 bbls, pH ~13”). Overview and characterization are pre-filled.
Components: Transport (150 bbl stainless vac trailer), Disposal (any qualified TSDF — provider sources). Audience filter requires ISN + Avetta + $5M insurance minimum.
Post: three qualified haulers in the 77530 ZIP prefix get emailed within 30 seconds.
Bids arrive: within two hours, three bids land. $2,400, $2,650, and $2,800 total job price. Ratings: ★ 4.8, ★ 4.6, ★ 4.9. The ops manager messages the $2,650 hauler to confirm the disposal site (a preferred injection well).
Accept: ops manager accepts the $2,650 bid. Both parties instantly get a Terms Record: 150 bbl stainless vac, stated disposal site, $2,650 total, time-stamped, signed by the accepting user and the bidding user.
Job runs as agreed. Hauler marks complete Thursday. Ops manager rates ★ 5.
Quarterly reporting: ops manager exports 13 weeks of completed jobs as CSV. Total time to prep the TCEQ filing: 20 minutes.

What Dispo actually changed

Zero billing disputes in the first quarter. When the hauler sent the invoice, the Terms Record was the reference.
Price dropped $150/job on average just from three haulers competing. Over 52 weeks, that's $7,800.
Regulator prep time went from 8 hours to 20 minutes per quarter.
A new hauler broke in — one the ops manager had never worked with but who had the credentials and was in the area.

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