VOORHEES, NJ, Sept. 28, 2011 -- American Water Works Company has been awarded a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for "Optimized Nutrient Removal from Wastewater."
Mark LeChevallier, Director of Innovation and Environmental Stewardship for American Water, said, "The innovation demonstrated by this patent will help to cost effectively address pressing needs for improved technology for wastewater treatment."
From the Chesapeake Bay watershed to the Mississippi watershed, municipalities and industries across the country are being required to remove nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater. Removing these various components can be a difficult and costly process that in some instances may require the addition of a carbon source to the wastewater treatment procedure. This new process created by American Water experts provides a more affordable and sustainable way of treating sewage.
Additionally, since a high concentration of dissolved oxygen used in many wastewater treatment processes contributes substantially to the cost of energy usage, this new patented process creates savings in both energy and process chemicals used for treatment.
The patent, number 8,012,352, was filed on December 30, 2010. American Water scientists Eugenio Giraldo, Yanjin Liu, Swarna Muthukrishnan are listed as the inventors of the new method.
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