LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- New Jersey American Water will soon install the state's largest ground-mounted solar electric system at its Canal Road Water Treatment Plant in Somerset, NJ as part of the Company's energy savings' initiatives.

The 500-kilowatt ground-mounted system will be designed and built by Dome- Tech Solar, a premier solar energy firm serving industrial and institutional clients in the northeast, and will include more than 2,800 solar panels from RWE SCHOTT Solar. New Jersey American Water expects it will be able to supplement 15% of the peak usage power needed to run the plant with solar energy and save approximately $125,000 a year in reduced energy costs. During peak production periods, the electricity produced by the solar system would be enough to meet the average electricity demand of more than 500 NJ homes.

"What we've invested over the last several years in making our facility more energy efficient, and what we are investing now in this solar system, will continue to reduce our energy consumption. These investments will result in reduced energy expenses," said Scott Connor, Project Delivery Manager for the New Jersey American Water.

The State of New Jersey encourages the use of green energy through its Clean Energy rebate program.

"As part of our overall campaign to reduce energy expenses, now and over time, we are working to keep our costs down, which may enable us to pass those savings on to our customers. In fact, with the rebate from the New Jersey Energy Program, the solar system alone will pay for itself in about 7 years, possibly creating larger savings as the system continues to produce energy for many more years," said Walter Lynch, President of New Jersey American Water.

The target date for completion of the installation is early Spring 2005. This pilot program could lead to the use of solar energy at other American Water plants.

"Dome-Tech's engineering and energy consulting services have been an integral part of our energy savings initiatives over the years. Their solid reputation for quality, technical excellence and customer service ensures the success of the New Jersey American Water solar project," Connor said.

"This project is indicative of how New Jersey's well-designed renewable energy incentive program is being put to good use. New Jersey American Water customers, who support the NJCEP incentive through their electric bills, should be pleased to know that New Jersey American Water is taking great strides to reduce its energy costs," said Marc Roper, vice president of sales for RWE SCHOTT Solar. "We applaud both New Jersey American Water for its forward-thinking approach to saving energy, and Dome-Tech, for its innovative approach that uses photovoltaics as the logical next step in designing an energy-saving program for its customers."

Web site: http://www.dometechsolar.com/
Web site: http://www.njawater.com/

Rice : Nano Particles Could Solve Ground Water Problem

Houston, TX -- New research from Rice University's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology finds that nanoparticles of gold and palladium are the most effective catalysts yet identified for remediation of one of the nation's most pervasive and troublesome groundwater pollutants, trichloroethene or TCE.

The research, conducted by engineers at Rice and the Georgia Institute of Technology, will appear next month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, a publication of the American Chemical Society.

“The advantages of palladium-based TCE remediation are well-documented, but so is the cost,” said lead researcher Michael Wong, assistant professor of chemical engineering and chemistry at Rice. “Using nanotechnology, we were able to maximize the number of palladium atoms that come in contact with TCE molecules and improve efficiency by several orders of magnitude over bulk palladium catalysts.”

TCE, which is commonly used as a solvent to degrease metals and electronic parts, is one of the most common and poisonous organic pollutants in U.S. groundwater. It is found at 60 percent of the contaminated waste sites on the Superfund National Priorities List, and it is considered one of the most hazardous chemicals at these sites because of its prevalence and its toxicity. Human exposure to TCE has been linked to liver damage, impaired pregnancies and cancer.

Cleanup costs for TCE nationwide are estimated in the billions of dollars. The Department of Defense alone estimates the cost of bringing its 1,400 TCE-contaminated sites into EPA compliance at more than $5 billion.

The typical approach to getting rid of TCE involves pumping polluted groundwater to the surface, where it can be exposed to chemical catalysts or microorganisms that break the TCE down into less toxic or non-toxic constituents. In general, chemical catalysis offers faster reactions times than bioremediation schemes but also tends to be more expensive.

One of the major advantages of using palladium catalysts to break down TCE is that palladium converts TCE directly into non-toxic ethane. By contrast, breaking down TCE with more common catalysts, like iron, produces intermediate chemicals, like vinyl chloride, that are more toxic than TCE.

In the CBEN experiments, Wong and collaborators compared the effectiveness of four varieties of palladium catalysts: bulk palladium, palladium powder on an aluminum oxide support base, pure palladium nanoparticles and a hybrid nanoparticle developed by Wong that consists of a gold nanoparticle covered with a thin coat of palladium atoms.

As metal particles get progressively smaller, a higher percentage of the atoms in the particle are found on the surface of the particle instead of being locked away inside the metal where they cannot interact with other chemicals. For example, in the bulk palladium, less than 4 percent of the palladium atoms were on surface of the particle. Pure palladium nanoparticles had 24 percent of the metal on the surface. In the gold-palladium nanoparticles, 100 percent of the palladium atoms are accessible for reaction.

“We've documented the efficiency of these catalysts in breaking down TCE, and the next step is engineering a system that will allow us to get at the polluted groundwater,” said Joe Hughes, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and a co-leader of CBEN's environmental research programs. “The scale of TCE contamination is enormous, so any new scheme for TCE remediation has got to clean large volumes of water very quickly for a just a few pennies.”

CBEN's research is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Source: http://www.rice.edu/

WARRENDALE, PA -- The Metropolitan Utilities District of Omaha recently awarded USFilter a more than $6 million contract to provide clarification and dewatering technology for its new 100-million-gallon-per-day (MGD) Platte West Water Treatment Plant. As part of the contract, submittal and final design of the equipment will be conducted during the first three months of 2005.

One of the largest lime-softening plants currently being designed in the United States, the plant will treat water from shallow wells along the Platte River using a lime softening and granular media filtration process from USFilter General Filter Products. Lime sludge from the softening process will be dewatered using two 300-ft3 recessed chamber filter presses from USFilter Dewatering Systems. While the dewatering installation marks the first such application for USFilter in the state of Nebraska, it is one of many USFilter filter presses installed for lime-softening sludge dewatering throughout North America.

Lime Softening Process:  USFilter General Filter Products will supply six 125-ft octagonal CONTRAFLO(R) solids contact units for the plant. Each unit will be capable of treating 17.3 MGD during full softening or 26 MGD if split lime softening treatment is used.

"The stainless steel option provides superior long-term corrosion resistance when compared to painted steel components," states HDR Project Manager Glenn Dostal, P.E. "After analyzing the life cycle cost of the equipment, we concluded future painting of steel components would outweigh the cost to purchase stainless steel construction materials."

To enhance the lime softening process, CONTRAFLO(R) units use a marine propeller that mixes previously formed lime sludge, treatment chemicals and raw water together. The marine propeller is ducted to the basin's bottom to re-circulate the heavy preformed solids that have settled to the basin floor. An inverted cone section in the basin provides reaction and flocculation time for the re-circulating water. As the water travels upward in the basin, the inverted cone provides a gradually reducing upflow velocity where solids settle out to provide a high clarity softened effluent.

USFilter Corporation, a Siemens company, delivers cost-effective, reliable water and wastewater treatment systems and services to municipal, industrial, commercial and institutional customers worldwide. Visit company websites at www.usfilter.com, and www.siemens.com.

Hancor Receives NOWRA Award
Hancor is pleased to announce it has received yet another “Appreciation for Model Code Performance Committee Work” award for its contributions to the Model Performance Code Committee.
 

Upcoming WEF Workshops The Water Environment Federation announces the following workshops for March and April 2005.

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People post their requests for help and offer their suggestions to others in our open forum.

Mr. Bradley needs help with resin in his water:

I've started work with a firm coating melamine/formaldehyde resins onto paper for laminates. The water stream from their current operations (Belgium) is put to a pit where much of the resin reacts and settles out.

The water is then sent to a thin film evaporator at low T and high vacuum where the stream is separated into water and a thick, viscous resin stream. They have two evaporators because of maintenance issues. The resin becomes rock solid when reacted.

I'm interested in water treatment options and opinions. Maybe a weir system with the ability to clean solids easily from the weir? pH control can be used to assist the reaction. We could recycle the water, but sending to the POTW may be an option depending on pre-treatment.  (Click here to post a reply)

Thanks in advance for your help,
Steve Bradley
Unilin
steve.bradley@usa.quick-step.com

Mr. Chaponnel wants to treat industrial wastewater:

Can anyone point me in the right direction or supply me with a process description for the treatment of the waste stream from a rubber manufacturing plant.  (Click here to post a reply)

Reg Chaponnel
Clearmake
clearmake.reg@bigpond.com

Help Forum:  Share your expertise with others in our Help Forum.

i

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Senior Watershed Assessment Specialist - Maryland

Immediate need for a Senior Watershed Assessment Specialist to assist our client in Columbia, MD.

Qualified candidate will work with an interdisciplinary group of watershed scientists on project applications in one or more of the following areas: assessment of watershed features affecting stream water quality/quantity and ecological status; stormwater monitoring and stormwater retrofit design, including low-impact development; innovative stormwater management and stream restoration solutions; hydraulic/hydrologic and water quality models (e.g. HEC-RAS, TR-20/55, SWMM); and other data analysis, interpretation, and reporting skills (including advanced GIS analysis and tool development) to meet client needs.

Minimum requirements include a Masters Degree and 3 to 5 years experience in a relevant discipline of the environmental sciences or engineering. Good oral and written communication skills are required; additional experience in scientific research and technical writing are also desirable.

A candidate with Municipal Inland watershed experience or Rosgen Training would be an excellent fit.

This position requires the ability to work on multiple projects in a multi-disciplinary team setting and skills in marketing and developing funding for projects are not essential but would be a plus.  Successful candidates must also be flexible, self-starter, able to think on their feet, able to creatively solve problems and capable of good client interactions and development of new projects.

Management experience sought would be at least 3 years of managing major tasks or projects, interacting as a corporate representative with major clients in areas of special expertise, and participation in proposal writing.

This position is Temp. to Hire and will pay between $25-$45/hour depending on experience.

To be considered, e-mail your resume in Word format to neoffice@etipros.com

The Job Fair:  A free service of Water and Wastewater.com.  You can post job opening for managers, engineers, sales, reps or other talented people you need. ...Or one can post their resume for companies who are looking to add talented people to their staff.

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Water and Wastewater Newsletter is a 100% opt-in e-mail list of information for the water and wastewater treatment professional.  Do you have company news, a new product, new service or other information you would like to share with our subscribers?  Please submit articles via e-mail, only to:  news@waterandwastewater.com

Lots of interesting news starting with the use of solar energy in NJ to help power a WWTP and how about nano particles (we have all heard of them but what do they do!) being used to treat groundwater, neat stuff, read on!

With over 7,600+ subscribers, our goal is to provide information to improve your business by using the resources available on the Internet.

Thanks, 
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This weeks photo is of the massive cleansing and repair of this vital 149 mile Iraqi waterway also includes the $12 million refurbishment of 13 water treatment plants and the repair of the pumping station that sends water from the canal's reservoir through a network of pipelines leading to residential, commercial and agricultural users.

Photo courtesy of USAID.

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