Water Briefs

Company Publishes Stormwater Treatment Guide

StormwateRx, a provider of industrial stormwater treatment and filtration systems, has announced the introduction of its Industry Remedies, a series of stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) and product configurations to meet the unique needs of specific industries, including energy, metal products, recycling, transportation, marine, rubber and plastics, food processing, wood products and solid waste, among others.

With experience developing and deploying stormwater treatment systems for a wide range of industries across the United States and Canada, the company has cultivated an understanding of the unique environmental concerns, BMPs, and product configurations to help industrial sites meet environmental benchmarks for stormwater runoff.

"Our goal at StormwateRx has always been to help industrial customers reach and exceed even the strictest water quality standards and permit requirements for stormwater runoff by providing cost-effective solutions that can be retrofit to existing stormwater drainages and systems," said Cal Noling, president and CEO of StormwateRx.

StormwateRx Industry Remedies include recommended stormwater treatment BMPs using industry-optimized configurations of the Clara® settling system to remove settleable oil and grit; the Aquip® passive, adsorptive stormwater filtration system for the reduction of pollutants such as oils, suspended solids, heavy metals (including dissolved metals), organics and nutrients and the Purus™ stormwater polishing system for enhanced pollutant removal of dissolved metals to the parts per billion range, toxic organics, water turbidity and elimination of pathogenic bacteria such as E. coli and fecal coliform.

For more information about StormwateRx Industry Remedies, products and case studies visit www.stormwaterx.com/Customers/IndustrialRemedies.aspx.

Product Targets Scale in Produced Water Systems

Ecosphere Energy Services has completed tests on its Ecosphere Ozonix technology to treat produced waters and eliminate scaling. The tests confirm that the produced water treated by the company's chemical-free process eliminates scaling in 10,000 and 150,000 ppm TDS produced waters. The tests included raw and untreated 150,000 ppm TDS produced fluid from the Woodford Shale and raw and untreated 10,000 ppm flowback fluid from the Fayetteville shale.

The untreated produced water samples scaled while the samples treated by the Ozonix process did not. The dynamic tube blocking tests were conducted by Weatherford Labs in Houston, TX, to determine the effect the Ozonix process has on scaling, a major problem faced by the energy exploration companies. Energy companies presently use liquid chemical scale inhibitors during the fracturing of the well to keep scale from building up in the piping system. The results of these recent tests confirm that the new process to eliminate scaling can now replace liquid chemical scale inhibitors.

Energy companies that are interested in reducing their environmental footprint have already begun using the Ecosphere Ozonix process. More information on the test results can be found on the Ecosphere website, www.ecospheretech.com/technology/ozonix/benefits.

Fluidized Bed Reactor Removes Nitrates from Groundwater

Envirogen Technologies has announced the successful start-up and operation of a fluidized bed reactor (FBR) system to remove nitrates from contaminated groundwater at Kinder Morgan Energy Partners' Mission Valley Terminal in San Diego, Calif.

The 0.5 mgd system is designed to provide a final treatment step for impacted groundwater pumped from an aquifer located beneath the city's Qualcomm Stadium, prior to direct discharge to the watershed. The Envirogen FBR system differs from conventional denitrification technology in that it does not create waste by-products that require further treatment. Biological treatment is a more sustainable approach for addressing denitrification and can handle high levels of nitrates.

Envirogen's FBR systems are fixed-film bioreactors in which sand or carbon media is suspended, or fluidized, within the reactor vessel by the upward flow of water through the system. The suspended media provides a large surface area for microbial growth and allows a biomass density several times greater than that of other bioreactor designs under similar loading conditions. Microorganisms in the reactor completely consume influent nitrates under anoxic conditions, reducing them to carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen gas and additional biomass growth.

The Mission Valley Terminal FBR installation, operated by Kinder Morgan, is designed to handle flow rates of 350 gallons per minute from multiple wells and reduce influent nitrate levels of 4 mg/L to <1.0 mg/L nitrate. Envirogen Technologies provided system design and manufacture - including vessels, peripheral equipment, media and microbial innoculant - along with installation oversight and additional process control/integration support.

More information about Envirogen and its systems may be found at www.envirogen.com.

Company Receives First Orders for new CIP System

EAU Technologies, a provider of electrolyzed water for high-volume, business-to-business applications, has received its first purchase orders from an international beverage company. EAU will install its Empowered Water™ CIP Systems at three of the company's bottling plants.

EAU previously announced the completion of the validation process for use in beverage filling equipment as a cleaning and sanitation process for CIP (Clean-in-Place) applications that led to this sale. CIP applications are used in the food industry to clean stationary equipment during a product changeover and system start-up. Results showed Empowered Water was able to improve current cleaning and sanitizing efficacy, minimizing the use of commercial chemicals while complying with microbiological integrity and sensory testing requirements. Testing also identified water and energy consumption savings as well as timesaving that can increase bottling production line availability.

Empowered Water is created by combining salt and potable water with an electrical charge. EAU generators create two streams. Primacide B is an effective cleaning fluid used as a replacement for caustic surfactants and cleaners. Primacide C is stabilized, non-toxic, acidic water effective at killing pathogens during the sanitation process. The active ingredient in Primacide C is Hypochlorous acid.

More information about the system may be found at www.eau-x.com.

Team Developing groundwater Contaminant-Detection Technology

AMEC, an international engineering and project management company, has signed an agreement with Dakota Technologies to co-develop a subsurface contaminant-detection technology that could save billions of dollars in groundwater cleanup costs.

Dense chlorinated solvents such as trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE) are among the most common contaminants found in groundwater. However, the source zones of these denser-than-water contaminants cannot be precisely defined using current technology.

AMEC and Dakota are pioneering a technology capable of rapid, high-resolution, real-time mapping of such contaminant zones. It is a new laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) tool, referred to as DYE-LIF™ (patent pending), that is able to detect any type of non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) in the subsurface, regardless of its composition and innate ability to fluoresce. With DYE-LIF, a hydrophobic, partitioning fluorescent dye is injected through a port in the LIF probe a few inches ahead of the LIF detector. If NAPL is present, the dye will dissolve into it and will begin to fluoresce. The fluorescence is then measured using Dakota's standard optical detection equipment.

LIF technologies developed and commercialized by Dakota in the last 20 years have been invaluable for quickly delineating certain categories of NAPLs that naturally fluoresce. Unfortunately, many types of NAPLs such as dense chlorinated solvent NAPLs (DNAPLs), natural gas condensates, monoaromatic petroleum hydrocarbons, and aviation gas do not naturally fluoresce. The new DYE-LIF technology solves this problem and facilitates detection of all NAPLs, regardless of their composition.

DNAPLs such as the chlorinated solvents PCE and TCE are particularly troublesome because they can seep to depths hundreds of feet below the ground surface. The inability to accurately delineate DNAPL source zones is a major impediment to aquifer cleanup programs around the world.

"The DYE-LIF technology, if successful, will be a game-changer in our industry's ability to characterize and remediate contaminant source zones," says AMEC co-inventor Murray Einarson. "This technology should be especially effective for quickly defining DNAPL source zones, which hasn't been possible using existing technologies."

Companies Team to Provide Water Reclamation Services

STW Resources Holding Corp., a water reclamation services company, has formed a Joint Venture, Water Reclamation Partners, LLC, with privately held Aqua Verde LLC, to provide independent water solutions for oil and gas producers, municipalities, and environmental remediation projects.

WRP is 51% owned by STW Resources. Under the terms of the agreement, Aqua Verde has assigned its existing Master Services Contract with a major oil & gas producer to WRP.

One goal of the joint venture is to develop and provide oilfield water reclamation services in the Denver-Julesburg Basin in northeastern Colorado.

To service the Master Services Contract, WRP is planning to deploy proven technology to reclaim a minimum of 4,000 barrels of produced water per day, increasing to 30,000 barrels per day at a rate of $2.25 to $5.75 per barrel depending on the treatment necessary. WRP's revenues will be distributed to STW on a monthly basis in accordance with its ownership interest.

Additionally, WRP has begun testing water samples for multiple producers in the Denver-Julesburg Basin to provide a suite of customized water reclamation services, based on the local water chemistry. The potential business for STW is the reclamation of hundreds of thousands of barrels of water daily.

Stanley Weiner, Chief Executive Officer of STW Resources said, "Water is a major environmental and political challenge for the oil and gas industry. STW is positioned to demonstrate that water reclamation is both politically viable and economical for producers."

Goulds Pumps Expands relationship with Enertech

Goulds Pumps, a business of ITT Corp., has expanded its current relationship with Enertech, a business unit of Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Co., to include exclusive sales coverage for PRO Services to the nuclear power industry in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Enertech has been the official distributor for Goulds Pumps for the nuclear industry in North America since 2000.

"Having demonstrated its success in selling pumps and replacement parts to nuclear power plants, we are confident Enertech will be successful in promoting the total repair and service capabilities of our PRO Services," said David Steblein, Vice President and General Manager for Sales and Services for ITT Industrial Process' Americas business. "We view our entrance into this market segment as a significant growth initiative for our PRO Services team."