PLEASANT HILL, CA -- After two years of research focused on developing the innovative hollow fiber membrane biofilm reactor ("MBfR") technology for commercial water treatment applications, Applied Process Technology, Inc. ("Applied") has licensed the MBfR from Northwestern University and now has exclusive, worldwide rights to market the technology for water treatment applications.

"The MBfR has truly great potential for solving serious, ubiquitous water contamination problems and has already generated significant interest from the water industry," stated Terry Applebury, president and CEO of Applied Process Technology, Inc. "The MBfR's reductive process will complement our existing HiPOx oxidation technology platform. Together these two very different treatment solutions will enable Applied to address a vast range of contaminant issues at a given treatment site without generating waste concentrates."

Licensed by Applied primarily for its tremendous environmental and cost advantages when compared with ion exchange, reverse osmosis and traditional biological treatment systems, the MBfR's uniqueness lies in its autotrophic nature and use of hollow fibers. As water flows along the outside of the hollow fibers, hydrogen is diffused from the bore of the fiber outwards, acting as an electron donor to promote the growth of bacteria that naturally occur in the water. The bacteria then consume waterborne contaminants, either destroying them or reducing them to innocuous products. So, unlike ion exchange and reverse osmosis, no waste concentrates are generated.

The MBfR has been demonstrated to effectively reduce a wide variety of toxic compounds that are not adequately removed using traditional treatment methods. A few of these compounds include: nitrates, which are ubiquitous and can cause serious health impacts when present in drinking water sources; perchlorate, a constituent of rocket fuel that has been reported in the water supplies of 20 states across the US and has been assigned a California drinking water action level of 6 ppb; chlorinated solvents such as trichloroethylene (TCE) and dibromochloropropane (DBCP); and other already oxidized compounds.

"We are continuing to discover more and more applications for the MBfR technology," says Applebury. "Contaminants such as chlorinated solvents, which were not initially identified as targets for the MBfR have been shown to respond well to the technology, even when multiple contaminants are present."

The MBfR has immediate applications as a remediation technology, shows promise for treatment of industrial process waters, and is expected to qualify as a drinking water treatment technology. It has also shown great potential for treating concentrated waste streams from ion exchange and reverse osmosis systems, both of which produce waste concentrates that require decontamination or disposal.

Applied has scaled up the MBfR from the laboratory to pilot-scale systems and will commence field demonstrations during the fourth quarter of 2005.

Applied Process Technology, Inc. provides technically superior ex-situ and in-situ water treatment solutions and services to the water industry. Applied specializes in treatment technologies that do not generate byproducts or waste streams. HiPOx products utilize advanced oxidation and ozonation processes to destroy a wide variety of VOCs and microcontaminants, treat Geosmin, odor, taste, and color contaminants, and perform disinfection. PulseOx in-situ chemical oxidation technology treats groundwater contamination directly in the aquifer. The novel membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR) technology utilizes autotrophic biological reduction to destroy contaminants such as perchlorate, nitrate, and chlorinated solvents.

Web site:  www.aptwater.com

Ecoloclean : Acquires Aquatronics Industries

Crystal City, TX -- Ecoloclean Industries, Inc., announced today its acquisition of Riverside, Rhode Island based Aquatronics Industries, Inc. For the past twenty years, Aquatronics has provided effective solutions to a diverse base of commercial and industrial customers with remediation equipment and services for the removal of impurities and waste by-products.

Aquatronics’ wastewater treatment systems equipment can be custom designed to remediate most any liquid or solids waste management problems necessary to comply with state and federal mandates. These custom design capabilities complement Ecoloclean’s existing equipment design, allowing for modification and adaptation to service a dramatically broader base of customers and industries.

Additionally, Aquatronics offers fabrication, installation, field service capabilities and mobile systems for on-site piloting and treatability assessment. Further, Aquatronics has designed and made available an economic self-contained home/business water purification system providing solutions to ever increasing contaminated water problems in underdeveloped third world countries. Also, Aquatronics was instrumental in assisting Ecoloclean Industries, Inc. (World Environmental Technologies, Inc.) in the recent purification of drinking water provided to the populace of the City of Biloxi, Mississippi.

Howard Schachter, President of Aquatronics Industries, Inc., said, “After 20-years of designing and installing water treatment systems, we feel very fortunate to have joined forces with a company equally committed to perfecting remediation techniques and dedicated to preserving, protecting and saving our vital resource know as “WATER.” We envision our combined efforts as a major step forward in the field of water and wastewater purification. We will continue to support Ecoloclean Industries, Inc. in their efforts provide relief to the Hurricane Katrina ravaged regions of the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast.”

Royis Ward, President and CEO of Ecoloclean Industries, Inc., stated, “We are pleased to have made Aquatronics Industries an integral part of our Company’s working structure and intend to build upon Aquatronics existing customer base and established presence in the waste remediation industry. As we continue to align ourselves with high caliber firms, we look forward to progressing our scope of business, while expanding our capabilities in the waste remediation marketplace and water purification industry.”

For more information about the Company, please visit http://www.ecoloclean.com

Aiken, SC -- Developed by the Savannah River National Laboratory, this is a device that is a pneumatic conveyance system that is capable of dislodging, capturing, and conveying solid material, wet or dry, from a depth of 70 feet.

The device relies on pneumatic “push” technology rather than the “suction” technology that has been traditionally used in pneumatic conveyance devices. While suction devices create high vacuum at the expense of high air consumption, this device utilizes a different design which creates a significantly stronger “push” on material and better material conveyance. Advantages of this device over similar suction devices is its performance. It provides the capability to carry the material to heights of 70 plus feet; suction devices are limited to 25 feet.

The application is for transport of solids and solid/liquid mixtures to elevation in excess of 50 ft. using compressed air only. Examples include transporting sand, wet sand, aggregate, plastics, grain and etc. for processing and storage. As an attachment to cleaning tools such as scarifiers, scabblers, shredders, etc., to transport debris to remote storage or holding locations. It can also be of valuable use for removal and transport of contaminated/hazardous materials such as asbestos, chemicals, and radioactive waste to remote storage locations in excess of 200 ft.

SRNL is currently entertaining expressions of interest from companies to commercialize this technology.

For more information contact:
John H. Olschon, Licensing Associate
Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property
Westinghouse Savannah River Company
Savannah River National Laboratory
Bldg. 773-41A, Room 239
Aiken, SC 29808
Telephone: 803-725-8125
Fax: 803-725-4988

. Michael Romano To Serve Gulf Coast Region Earth Tech, a global provider of consulting, engineering, construction and operation and maintenance services, has named Michael Romano director of business development.

Water Purveyors Benefit from New Supply System
Black & Veatch announced today that it has received notice to proceed with engineering design of a conveyance system that will deliver raw water from the Nacimiento Reservoir.
 

New Stainless Steel Tank Manway Options Axium Process, specialist hygienic stainless steel fabricators, offer a comprehensive range of stainless steel tank manways.

Click here to visit the News Center...

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

Mr. Primozic has a problem with analyzing boron:

We analyzed wastewater which contains boron. We used analytical method ISO 9390:1996 Determination of borate - Spectrometric method using azomethine-H.

We have problems with boron calibration graph. When we analyzed standard solution with 1 mg/l boron we get result 0.5 mg/l. We tried to do many different calibrations graphs but the results are always the same.

Do you know how to solve our problem?  (Click here to post a reply)

Thank you,
Polona Primozic
Snaga
polona.primozic@snaga.si

Mr. Ebbers needs help with wastewater from glove plant:

At the moment I'm running a small biological simulation on treating water from a rubber glove factory. The problem is the bacteria seem to die off after a few days. The residual COD first goes down, then goes up again. The biomass continuously decreases.

I've found out that the white foam might indicate that surfactants are involved. I've gone through the forum threads but didn't find any information on the surfactant they use. It's an ethoxylated acetylenic diol. Could this surfactant cause the problem?

I'm currently using Poly Aluminum Chloride and anionic polymer in the pretreatment to remove suspended solids before the biological system.
Is there any way I can remove/neutralize the surfactant in the pretreatment?

They also use alkyl trimethyl ammonium bromide and ethylene oxide which might cause problems.  Is there any way I can remove/neutralize these chemicals in the pretreatment? (Click here to post a reply)

Thanks for your help,
Harald Ebbers
CGE Systems
daprody@yahoo.com

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

i

i

Civil CAD Designer - Los Angeles

Fulltime Contract position. $28-$36/hr

Responsibilities: Experience with the preparation of wastewater treatment and pumping plant engineering drawings. Ability to layout and perform design/drafting of engineering drawings from verbal direction, rough sketches or from scanned backgrounds. Good oral and written communication skills are essential. The designer must be willing to work with others and receive and comply with instructions. Provide design support to the Project Engineer/Manager of wastewater-treatment plant projects. The designer must be able to consider various design alternatives and must be able to provide design recommendations.

Civil designer will design wastewater treatment projects utilizing City Standards to design brine water lines, fresh water lines, high and low pressure effluent lines, industrial cost water, fresh water lines, potable water lines, polymer lines, irrigation water lines an fire protection lines. Design storm drains, catch basins and maintenance holes and utilize APWA to design cross sections, plans and profiles of street.

Qualifications: Must have a minimum of 10 yrs experience in the design and construction of sewage treatment facility or related industrial setting. Knowledge of City CAD Standards and Procedures. Minimum 6 - 10 years experience working with Microstation MSJ, IRASB. Must have worked with reference files and cell libraries and understand CAD standards and methodologies. Must have experience or knowledge of raster files or scanned drawings. Knowledge and applications of industry code and standards like APW, ANSI, UBC, etc.

This position is full time and a contract assignment for approx. 6 months. Full benefits are provided after 90 days.

For more information contact:
Jamie Gallegos
Aztec Professional Services
720-771-6678
Fax: 303-840-5497
jgallegos@aps-careerzone.com
www.aps-careerzone.com

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Water and Wastewater Newsletter
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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

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Wastewater Collection System Operator Certification Studybook
by Water Environment Federation, Spiral bound, 195 pages, 2002

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Water Works Engineering Planning Design and Operations
by Syed R. Qasim, et al.
Hardcover, 844 page, May 2000

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Handbook of Environmental Engineering Calculations
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This weeks photo is of the pumping out of New Orleans. ITT Industries has pledged $250,000 to fund immediate hurricane relief, and has made available fluid technology equipment, including dewatering pumps and reverse osmosis systems which could be vital to relief efforts.

Photo courtesy ITT Industries.

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