Terrabon Inc. joined Texas Gov. Rick Perry and city of Laredo officials at an event held in Laredo City Hall to announce the benefits of a water treatment project that will purify 50,000 gal per day of brackish water for potable use in Laredo’s water supply system. Perry also awarded $2.75 million from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF) to Terrabon for its work in biofuel technology development.
“As our population grows by about 1,000 people a day, we must take steps to ensure our energy supply keeps up with increasing demand,” Perry said. “Now is the time to tackle that challenge, and we’re using the Texas Emerging Technology Fund and this investment in Terrabon’s biofuels technology as a key tool in that effort.”
The city’s Santa Isabel Water Treatment Plant will utilize Terrabon’s AdVE technology developed in partnership with Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), a member of the Texas A&M University System. The AdVE process will remove impurities using advanced vapor compression evaporation to produce drinkable water for Laredo. Further, the project will demonstrate the commercial viability of the desalination technology that also reduces the capital and operating costs of water purification. The pilot plant is being designed in cooperation with American Water's Applied Management Group, which also will provide operating support.
“The development of this pilot project is one step in securing and providing water in the future, not only for Laredo, but for the entire state of Texas,” said Laredo City Council Member Gene Belmares.
Terrabon also has successfully produced high-octane “green” gasoline made from non-food biomass at its demonstration facility in Bryan, Texas. Developed again in partnership with TEES, Terrabon’s MixAlco is a bio-refining technology that converts low-cost, readily available, non-food, non-sterile biomass into valuable chemicals such as acetic acid, ketones and alcohols that can be processed into renewable gasoline fuels. The biomass used as feedstock includes municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, forest product residues such as wood chips, wood molasses and other wood waste and non-edible energy crops such as sweet sorghum.
Terrabon holds the exclusive worldwide license from the Texas A&M System for this technology. After it has built the first few commercial plants, the company intends to license and joint venture this technology with industrial partners and others who play a major role in biomass collection or in transportation.
“We are proud to be part of Laredo’s efforts to apply new, innovative technologies that now offer the city a viable option for a future secondary water source. This water treatment project and the investment by the Texas Emerging Technology Fund will play an integral role both in confirming the potential of our technologies and in expediting our plans for commercial deployment,” said Terrabon CEO Gary Luce.
Source: Terrabon
