In a promising move to improve harbor water quality and increase the long-term recreational and marine environments within the Long Island Sound for the millions of people who reside along its shores, ThermoEnergy Corp. was awarded a $7 million contract by the City of New York's Department of Environmental Protection to employ the company's ammonia-recovery process at the Bowery Bay Water Pollution Control Plant in Queens.
P>The large-scale environmental project is a culmination of seven years of developing ThermoEnergy's patented Ammonia Recovery Process (ARP) technology to remove 90% of the ammonia in the liquid discharged from the wastewater treatment facility into the East River. It is considered a significant step in eliminating a major source of the harsh pollutants and high nitrogen levels that now suffocate the delicate marine ecosystems of both the Long Island Sound and Jamaica Bay.
"Ammonia removal is fast becoming a critical regulatory issue for many municipal wastewater plants that discharge into vulnerable estuaries and waterways such as the Mississippi River, Chesapeake Bay, Puget Sound and Long Island Sound, where excess ammonia can lead to eutrophication, or 'dead zones'," said Dennis Cossey, CEO of ThermoEnergy Corp.
"ARP is not only the leading technology to solve the problem, it will save the ratepayers hundreds of millions in future disposal costs over age-old biological nitrogen reduction methods."
Traditional ammonia removal methods that rely on biological organisms require large amounts of space, a wide array of chemicals (some of which are hazardous) and are prone to process upsets that take weeks or months to repair.
In addition, they generate secondary wastes and other materials resulting in additional off-site disposal costs. ARP is the only ammonia removal technology that provides for the beneficial reuse of the recovered ammonia by converting it into ammonium-sulfate, a widely-used and consumer-ready fertilizer product.
Source: TEC
