ThermoEnergy Corporation, an integrated technologies company engaged in the worldwide commercialization of technically advanced clean water and clean air process systems, announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent for the Ammonia Recovery Process (ARP) technology.
ARP is a cost-effective and environmentally effective method for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities, as well as large confined animal farming operations, to meet stringent new state and federal nitrogen (ammonia) discharge regulations.
Highly concentrated ammonia discharge can be lethal to many aquatic species in lakes, rivers and streams. ARP removes the ammonia present in the discharge streams, a financial and regulatory liability for municipal and industrial wastewater operators, concentrates it and then converts it to ammonium sulfate – a valuable commodity in the form of a commercial grade fertilizer used by agriculture worldwide.
ARP was successfully demonstrated in 1999 at New York City's Oakwood Beach Water Pollution Control Plant on Staten Island (the results of which can be found in the "Environmental Technology Verification Report for Ammonia Recovery Process," prepared by the Civil Engineering Research Foundation; CERF Report: #40458).
The process was further refined during a subsequent $3 million demonstration project at Colton, Calif., in 2000. When combined with the company's ThermoFuel Process, it will allow wastewater treatment plant operators to optimize plant performance, meet all nitrogen discharge requirements for new or existing plants, and reclaim the ammonia as a useful product.
Developed by Battelle Memorial Institute, a large international research and development organization which operates Brookhaven National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, ThermoEnergy owns the exclusive worldwide rights to market the technology to the wastewater treatment and agriculture industries.
"The company is now rapidly moving toward the commercialization of this important new economic and environmental breakthrough technology that lowers treatment costs and yet protects the environment," said Dennis C. Cossey, CEO of ThermoEnergy Corporation.
ThermoEnergy is a diversified technologies company engaged in the commercialization of patented and/or proprietary municipal and industrial wastewater treatment and power production technologies.
Source: ThermoEnergy Corp.
