Suez broke ground on a laboratory in Tomball, Texas, that will be used to continue the company’s research and development of specialty chemicals for the industrial segment. Expected to open in mid-2018, the facility’s staff will seek process innovations for the oil and gas industry, focusing on global upstream and downstream applications.

Suez’s customers will be able to request testing of industrial water, oil for microbiological content and deposit as well as metallurgical failure testing. Designed for more than 80 researchers and support staff, the site also will have an advanced technical training center for engineers and scientists. According to Suez, investments in new analytical instrumentation will provide improvements in deposit, water, oil and materials testing.