• Earth Tech takes on role as Construction Manager to handle civil engineering aspects; First project to utilize TMEN's innovative ARP technology in first major municipal wastewater treatment plant
LITTLE ROCK, AR, Sept. 8, 2008 -- ThermoEnergy Corporation announced the signing of a formal agreement with Earth Tech Inc., part of AECOM, one of the world's largest environmental and infrastructure engineering companies, to act as Construction Manager as well as perform the civil engineering work for the Company's multi-million dollar Ammonia Recovery Process (ARP) project to be sited at the 26th Ward Water Pollution Plant in Brooklyn, New York. The new facility will be the first commercial ARP project in the world and will play a key role in helping New York City to achieve its environmental goals.
"We are pleased to have Earth Tech/AECOM join ThermoEnergy on this important and timely wastewater treatment project for the City of New York," said Dennis C. Cossey, CEO of ThermoEnergy Corporation. "Their professional skills and broad range of experience in the municipal wastewater industry will be a valuable contribution to the overall success of the project and further escalate the market awareness for our ARP technology." "We plan to use the 26th Ward plant as the model for future municipal and industrial ARP facilities, not only in the US but worldwide," said Cossey.
With the recent site inspection completed, engineers from Earth Tech and Castion Corporation, ThermoEnergy's water division, recently submitted the new design for the 26th Ward ARP facility to the City's Commissioner for the Bureau of Wastewater Treatment, incorporating the upgrades requested by the City, significantly increasing the size and scope of the project.
ThermoEnergy's ARP process represents the least costly and most environmentally responsible way of eliminating nitrogen, in the form of ammonia, from municipal and industrial wastewater discharges. Many states, and as well as the federal government, have begun to regulate these discharges to protect the environment. While ammonia, in small amounts, is present in many industrial and household products, in large doses it is harmful to human health and toxic to aquatic life.
Recent test runs on actual New York City ammonia wastewater processed by the Company's large-scale pilot plant in Worcester, MA, were highly successful, producing a discharge-stream with an ammonia level significantly better than that required by the City. With the addition of the pre-filtering and polishing columns that will be added to the large-scale commercial ARP plant, system performance is expected to increase the margin of compliance even further.
Once on-line, the planned 26th Ward ARP facility will be able to process and treat up to 500,000 gallons per day of the plants ammonia-laden, internal recycle stream called centrate. "At current levels of ammonia concentration, the initial ARP plant at 26th Ward will prevent approximately 600 tons of ammonia from entering Jamaica Bay every year," said Cossey, "converting it instead into a commercial grade fertilizer which can be used as a fertilizer for various applications."
In addition to converting a liability into a useful commodity, the use of ARP instead of conventional biological systems can reduce the amount of energy needed by the host wastewater treatment plant as well as significantly reducing carbon air emissions from wastewater treatment plants by thousands of tons a year. "This aspect of the ARP process is particularly attractive to New York City because it perfectly compliments Mayor Bloomberg's unique and highly progressive environmental sustainability program called PlaNYC," said Cossey. "In addition to significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we plan to donate part of the liquid fertilizer produced by the 26th Ward ARP plant to the City for use as a fertilizer for City parks and greenbelts as part of the proposed Keep the Apple Green program."
ThermoEnergy is a diversified technologies company engaged in the worldwide commercialization of patented and/or proprietary municipal and industrial wastewater treatment and power generation technologies.
Earth Tech is a global provider of consulting, engineering, and construction services to municipal, regional and national governments, multinational commercial and industrial companies, public and private utilities, institutions and private developers in the areas of water/wastewater treatment, transportation, environmental and infrastructure.
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