Episode 2: The Shortest Slippiest Path

Picture this: it’s a scorching August day in Kansas. You’ve spent months trying to whip a thick, sticky bio-oil into an injectable state. It’s flowing terribly like thick taffy, even in the heat. Breaking pump after pump. If you’ve ever tried to wrestle a greased-up walrus up a ramp you’ve got an idea of what our lives were like at Charm last summer.

As we’ve scaled up operations, we’ve had to tackle the challenge of making bio-oil flow smoothly while meeting strict regulatory requirements that ensure the bio-oil goes–and stays–where it’s intended. We tested a range of solutions, from refining our manufacturing methods to experimenting with complex multi-pump setups at the wellhead. But the best solution turned out to be the simplest…the shortest…and the slippiest.