German American Water Technology Magazine - AHK USA

Transcription

Picture Credits: Shutterstock
German American
Water Technology Magazine
2015/2016
New Approaches & Technologies
For Tackling Emerging Pollutants
In Drinking & Wastewater
Water in
Pennsylvania
Wastewater Recycling &
Reuse In Shale Gas Drilling
Featuring Our
Country Special: Canada
We don’t just make business prosper. We make history.
Filled with top talent and progressive water technology brands, Minnesota was recently named
the top state for business in 2015 by CNBC.
It’s a place where business and people prosper.
Learn more at greatermsp.org
®
2
Welcome
Chicago, October 2015
I am honored to share the 2015 edition of our German-American Water
Technology Magazine with you. Since its launch in 2012, GACC
Midwest’s German American Water Technology (GAWT) Initiative has
traveled to many cities throughout the U.S. and Germany. Our GAWT
Expert Roundtables series has already visited dozens of states across the
Midwest and beyond. In 2015 our travels have taken us to Indianapolis to
WWETT and Minneapolis/St. Paul.
The challenges of today’s aging water infrastructure are pressing. We are
proud that the GAWT Initiative has developed into a sought-after platform
for knowledge sharing and for the identification of industry best practices
in the water sector. Germany and the U.S. are both important markets in
the water industry, and we work together to tackle challenges with global
implications.
Mark Tomkins
President & CEO
German American Chamber
of Commerce of the Midwest, Inc.
For the country special in this edition, I would like to take you on a brief
excursion to Canada – a country containing about 60% of all the lakes in
the world. Learn more about how our North American neighbor country
uses leading technologies to improve energy and water efficiency.
I would like to thank all of our sponsors, supporters, contributors,
speakers, event attendees and everyone who has helped GACC Midwest
shape this initiative and make it as dynamic and productive as it is. Our
special thanks go to the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of
Germany Chicago and German Water Partnership for their support in the
U.S. and Germany.
GACC Midwest is excited to keep up with the current and continue the
GAWT Initiative in 2016 and beyond – fostering exchange between our
countries, finding further synergies, and launching innovative technologies
to tap all opportunities the water sector has to offer.
German American Water Technology Magazine 2015/2016
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Table Of Contents
Welcome
Mark Tomkins, President & CEO, GACC Midwest
3
Fueling Progress In The German & American Water Industries Since 2012
GACC Midwest
U.S. Demand For Water Treatment Technologies On The Rise
Christian Janetzke, Germany Trade & Invest
Emschergenossenschaft; Sarah Beyer, Ecologic Institute; Manuel Lago,
Ecologic Institute; Issa Nafo, Emschergenossenschaft; Sebastian Birk,
University of Duisburg-Essen
40
5
State Of The Art Sewage Sludge Handling, Drying, And Incineration
INTEC Engineering GmbH
43
7
Putting The O In Advanced Oxidative Processes
Michael Mangham, Premier Materials Technology, Inc.
44
New Approaches & Technologies For Tackling Emerging Pollutants In
Drinking & Wastewater
Ulf Stein, Evelyn Lukat, Anna Bee Szendrenyi, Ecologic Institute
46
Indiana Stresses Collaboration And Innovative Approaches To Address
Water Infrastructure And Technology Issues
Erik Hromadka, Global Water Technologies
10
Granular Activated Carbon For Treatment Of Algal Toxins
Calgon Carbon Corporation
12
Photoionization For Plant Odor Control: Cleaner Air, Lower Energy Costs
Oliver G. Augustin, NEUTRALOX ® Umwelttechnik GmbH
Upcoming GACC Midwest Programs 2015/2016
GACC Midwest
50
14
Transforming Wastewater Biosolids Into A New Product
Water Equipment and Policy (WEP) Research Center
52
16
DE Services - Take Your Business Global - Now!
GACC Midwest
Water in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development
54
18
The German American Chambers Of Commerce Network
GACC Midwest
Wastewater Recycling And Reuse In Shale Gas Drilling
Tom Lewis, President & CTO, Lewis Environmental Services
20
Implementing Sustainable and Resilient Energy Initiatives in Water and
Sewer Systems: City of Grand Rapids, MI
Dr. Haris Alibašić
22
Imprint
Publisher & Editor
Sustainable Solutions For Full Nutrient Removal At The Blue Plains WWTP
In Washington DC
24
INVENT Environmental Technologies, Inc.
26
German Water And Wastewater Technology – In Use All Over The World
Peter Gebhart, VDMA
28
The German Water Sector: Secure Water Supply, Wastewater Collection
and Treatment
German Water Partnership e.V.
31
Conception & Text
Dominique Lellek, Nadine Schieban, Svenja Schroeder, Matthew Uber
Country Special: CANADA - The Canadian Water Sector
Anna-Lena Gruenagel, Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce
Inc.
32
Layout & Design
Nadine Schieban
Online Water Monitoring Prevents Deposits, Saving Facilities Thousands
Tilman Heyl, CEO, Heyl Brothers North America
34
Emerging Contaminants Regulations In The United States
Richard Radcliff, Beam, Longest & Neff
36
Water And The New Urgency
E. W. Bob Boulware, P.E., MBA
38
Promoting Innovation Through The Assessment Of Changes In Fresh Water
Ecosystem Services: The DESSIN ESS Evaluation Framework
Gerardo Anzaldua, Ecologic Institute; Nadine Vanessa Gerner,
4
German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest, Inc.
321 North Clark Street, Suite 1425
Chicago, IL 60654-4714
Tel.: +1 (312) 644-2662 | Fax: +1 (312) 644-0738
Email: info@gaccmidwest.org | URL: www.gaccmidwest.org
Adopting Advanced Water Technology In The Water State
Timothy Nolan, Sustainable Development Expert State of Minnesota
Notes
© German American Chamber of Commerce® of the Midwest, Inc., October
2015
Reproduction in whole or in part of any article is prohibited without
permission. Editor and publisher cannot accept any liability for the accuracy
or completeness of any material published. Contributed articles do not
necessarily reflect the Chamber’s position.
If you have any comments regarding articles in this magazine, please contact
us.
Fueling Progress In The German & American
Water Industries Since 2012
Water Technology (GAWT) Initiative in
2012.
We started out with nothing more than a list
Water is crucial for many industries,
including paper manufacturing, food
processing, agriculture, and energy
generation. At some level, the entire
of seven contacts from the U.S. water sector
– and within just two years, we have already
achieved major successes:
•
economy is affected by changes in the
infrastructure.
•
recognized organizations in the
Partnership, the Council of Great Lakes
funding, the trend towards more sustainable
Governors, and the Water Council
solutions, and the need for investment in
of innumerable articles and reports from
We have partnered with globallywater sector including German Water
Water infrastructure issues, a lack of
the U.S. water sector have been the topic
over 1,000 individuals in the U.S. and
Germany
water sector, and depends on a well-
functioning, efficient, and sustainable water
Our water contact list has grown to
•
associations and organizations such as the
We have traveled throughout the U.S. to
host expert roundtables in 9 cities in 9
different states
American Society of Civil Engineers, the
Center for Neighborhood Technologies, and
the American Water Works Association.
The urgency of these issues and the potential
for action and collaboration inspired GACC
Midwest to tackle the challenges facing
the water sector as part of our dedicated
mission to promote and support trade and
investment between the U.S. and Germany.
Given that Germany and the U.S. are two
of the most innovative countries globally
when it comes to water technologies, and
Germany is well-known for its best practice
technologies in the sustainability field, we at
GACC Midwest saw an exciting opportunity
to extend our services to companies in the
water sector.
Our sizeable and robust German American
business network, combined with our
technical and market insider knowledge,
The GAWT initiative on the road
•
We have taken U.S. delegations to
Germany and German delegations to
the U.S. to promote collaboration and
knowledge sharing in the water sector.
allowed us to create the German American
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Site Visit at Seneca Wastewater Treatment plant, May 2015
German Delegates and Conference Speakers at the Transatlantic Water Technology Conference, May 2015
The GAWT Initiative has enjoyed another
successful year from 2014 to 2015. One of
this year’s highlights was the Transatlantic
Water Tech Conference in Minneapolis,
MN, which was held in May to discuss
efficient water infrastructure and innovative
wastewater management as a driver for
a healthy local economy. This event was
funded by the German Federal Ministry of
Economic Affairs and Energy and conducted
with the assistance of German Water
in the German and U.S. water markets,
and discovered innovative products and
technologies from Germany.
GACC Midwest also arranged for the
delegates from the eight German firms
GACC Midwest is currently preparing for
our presence at WEFTEC, North America’s
largest water technology trade show, taking
place in Chicago from September 26-30,
2015. We invite you to join us on this special
occasion at our 2nd WEFTEC International
Night Reception taking place on September
28 to network, mingle, and celebrate the
continued and future successes of our
GAWT Initiative. For more information
on our International Night Reception at
WEFTEC, contact Svenja Schroeder,
schroeder(at)gaccmidwest.org.
Campus Tour at the University of Minnesota, May 2015
Transatlantic Water Technology Conference, May 2015
Partnership, Greater MSP, and the Minnesota
Trade Office.
With a final count of over 40 participants,
the conference welcomed a wide array of
local and international expert speakers and
company representatives from the American
and German water sectors. Attendees
learned about new wastewater management
& water infrastructure solutions, heard
about the latest developments and trends
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participating in the Transatlantic Water Tech
Conference to take part in B2B meetings
throughout the week with Minneapolis-St.
Paul region businesses engaged in water
infrastructure and wastewater management.
The delegates were also treated to a site visit
tour of the Seneca Wastewater Treatment
Plant in Eagan, MN, and a tour of the
University of Minnesota. They also had the
opportunity to take part in a luncheon with
German Ambassador to the United States Dr.
Peter Wittig at the Minneapolis Club during
the week of their visit.
Together with our initiative partners in
Germany and the U.S., we are currently
developing ideas for new projects in 2016 –
including transatlantic delegation programs,
expert roundtables, conferences, and much
more. If you are interested in hosting an
event with us, or if you would like us to
bring the GAWT Initiative to your city,
please contact Nadine Schieban, schieban(at)
gaccmidwest.org.
For more information on our GAWT
Initiative, visit our website at:
www.gaccmidwest.org/water
U.S. Demand For Water
Treatment Technologies On The Rise
Article by Christian Janetzke, Germany Trade & Invest; Translation from German by Sandy Jones,
GACC New York
Membrane and disinfection systems
see high demand, focus remains on
recycling in the dry south
According to the market research institute
Products
2014
2019
% Change *)
Demand in total
11,620
15,000
5.2
Conventional filters
6,020
7,350
4.1
Membrane technology
3,590
4,900
6.4
Freedonia, demand for water and wastewater
Desinfection technology
980
1,400
*) average annual percent change from 2014 to 2019 | Source: Freedonia Group
in 2014, to US $11.6 billion. The market is
The market is dominated by conventional
is likely to increase in the coming years,
in the medium term --though at a slightly
demand was attributable to such filters.
need for municipal wastewater treatment.
treatment technologies increased by 7.4%
expected to continue increasing significantly
reduced rate.
Projected demand for the most important
product segments (in millions of US$):
filters. Approx. 52% of the value-based
The filter market is heavily saturated and
research and development activities are
rather low in this area. However, demand
7.4
primarily due to the continued & increasing
The market research institute Bluefield
predicts that the amount of water treated
in municipal plants will increase by 61%
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between 2015 and 2025. Many treatment
plants have already been in use for decades.
Operators will have to invest heavily in
new technology and equipment to continue
operations, reports Vanessa Leiby, managing
director of the Water & Wastewater
Equipment Manufacturers Association
(WWEMA).
Such plant upgrades will be costly.
In California, for instance, the state
Environmental Protection Agency has
enacted more stringent standards for the
quality of treated water in recent years. In
order to comply with the regulations, the
cost to the Sacramento Regional County
Sanitation District to build a state-of-the-art
water treatment plant was approximately
$2.0 billion.
demand.
Industry sector with a high demand in
disinfection technologies
The demand for disinfection technology
(especially UV systems) is increasing as
customers of various sectors increasingly
elect to forgo the expenses required for
chemical disinfection, which include
transport and storage of chemicals.
Concurrently, the effectiveness of UV
disinfection systems is increasing. In
addition, dynamics in the construction
sector as well as the increasing demand for
pools and saunas have driven the need for
disinfection technology, reported Freedonia.
In the industrial sector, analysts expect
High dynamics in the segment for
reverse osmosis membranes
the highest growth in demand in the
In the filters segment, market experts predict
and beverage industry as well as in the
the strongest growth to be in the area of
filter cartridges in the coming years. Sand
filtration, however, is losing its significance
and is increasingly being replaced by new
technologies.
medium term, following advancements
in treatment technologies in the food
pharmaceutical sector. These industries face
strict requirements regarding water purity
and quality. Market experts also assume an
increasing need in the metal industry as well
as in the chemical industry.
The need for membrane systems and
The trend towards “zero liquid discharge”
increase significantly in the coming years.
disinfection systems, according to Leiby.
sanitation systems in particular is likely to
Environmental technology companies make
technological progress in these segments at
a rapid speed (for example, in high-quality,
durable reverse osmosis membranes).
According to the market research institute
Frost & Sullivan, operators of water
treatment plants will increasingly convert
their often outdated membrane systems to
reverse osmosis.
8
membrane technology) will also drive
is a growth driver for membrane and
More and more companies are striving to
operate without the discharge of wastewater,
focusing instead on “closed loop” processes:
with sufficient treatment, industrial
wastewater can be effectively recycled and
reused within the same plant.
Lower demand in oil and gas industry
The oil and gas industry has provided
significant impetus for sustained, expansive
market development in the realm of
wastewater technologies in the past
three years, reports Leiby. The shale gas
industry is increasingly under pressure to
extensively recycle wastewater that has
been filled with heavy metals and partially
radioactive substances in the course of
fracking operations. Thus, operators of
treatment plants are increasingly equipping
their systems with new technology tailored
to the needs of the industry sector, such
as in Pennsylvania where, in recent years,
numerous industrial wastewater plants
have been constructed in close proximity to
fracking locations.
In the dry locations in the south and
southwest, widespread water shortages have
resulted in fracking being viewed as costly
and unpopular, says Leiby. Additionally, the
relatively low price of oil by comparison has
limited the development of fracking projects.
According to Leiby, demand for wastewater
technologies has decreased accordingly since
the summer of 2014.
In the field of power generation, market
impulses could come from new regulations
from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) in the medium term,
according to Leiby. The EPA has planned for
stricter requirements to be established with
regard to dissolved substances, especially the
toxic metals from industrial processes that
may be discharged into surface waters.
Projected demand for the most important
customer segments (in millions of US$):
Desalination is the fastest-growing
Segments
2014
2019
Changes *)
application of membrane systems, says
Cities/municipalities for municipal treatment of water
6,050
7,510
4.4
Freedonia. Important impulses will come
and wastewater
from both the industry and the energy
Industry
2,350
3,100
5.7
sector in the next couple of years. Increased
Construction sector
1,400
1,845
5.7
interest in membrane bioreactors (combining
Resource extraction
1,245
1,865
8.4
a biological wastewater treatment with
Power generation
420
472
2.4
*) average annual percent rate of change from 2014 to 2019 | Source: Freedonia Group
Strong interest in technologies for the
recycling of water
A similar project is in development by the
are built for the abstraction of drinking
Many municipalities and cities in the
plant with a capacity of 83 million gpd is
to be built for the recycling of wastewater,
(California), the largest water desalination
southern United States are affected by
seasonally occurring droughts. Drought
periods threaten drinking water supplies
and have driven the demand for new
technologies. California in particular is
facing great challenges to maintain its
drinking water supply in the medium term.
Recycling of wastewater is thus increasing
in importance, and Orange County has been
a pioneer in this regard.
A treatment plant in Orange County built
in 2008 has been recycling wastewater in a
3-step process so thoroughly that it becomes
suitably safe for reintroduction into the
drinking water supply. In February 2015,
the capacity of this plant was increased by
City of San Diego. For US$3.5 billion, a
example. By 2035, about one-third of the
million gpd, will cover 10% of the drinking
drinking water supply of the city will be met
by this system.
Moreover, at the state level in general,
California has set lofty goals. In 2014,
the annual amount of treated wastewater
amounted to 0.7 million acre feet (1 acre
water needs of San Diego County in 2016.
The investment amounts to approximately
US$1 billion. The operator of the plant,
Poseidon Resources Corp., has entered into
a 30-year agreement with the San Diego
County Water Authority regarding water
supply.
feet = 43.560 cubic feet). By 2030, this
On the part of the operators of desalination
million acre feet. According to calculations
membranes is increasing in order to comply
number will be mandated to rise to 2.5
from the information portal “Circle of
Blue,” investments between US$13 billion
and US$81 billion will be required for the
realization of this goal.
Rising demand for equipment for
desalination plants
investment cost for this extension amounted
More and more desalination plants,
to approximately US$140 million.
plant of the country, with a capacity of 50
using the Orange County plant as an
about 30% to 100 million gallons (1 gallon =
3.79 l) of drinking water per day (gpd). The
water. Close to the town of Carlsbad
especially in California, Florida and Texas,
plants, the need for ultra and micro filtration
with the EPA regulations regarding the
quality of drinking water (“Safe Drinking
Water Act”). Especially given breakthroughs
in the very energy-intensive process of the
desalination of sea water in the medium
term, the demand for innovative, energyefficient membrane technologies will
increase significantly.
Links
•
American Water Works Association
•
Water and Wastewater Equipment
•
•
•
•
Internet: www.awwa.org
Manufacturers Association Internet: www.wwema.org
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Internet: http://water.epa.gov
Association of State Drinking Water
Administrators
Internet: www.asdwa.org
Water World (information portal)
Internet: www.waterworld.com
German American Chambers of
Commerce (AHK United States)
Internet: www.ahk-usa.com
9
Indiana Stresses Collaboration And Innovative
Approaches To Address Water Infrastructure And
Technology Issues
Erik Hromadka, Global Water Technologies
Better coordination of water policy,
innovative approaches and adoption of new
technologies are gaining support to improve
water supply and infrastructure in the state of
Indiana, which is home to 6.5 million people
with diverse water sources and needs.
The state’s water resources range from
the sandy shores of Lake Michigan in the
northwest to rivers that flow across the flat
central part of the state to the hilly regions
of the Ohio River that serves as its southern
border. Drinking water in Indiana is provided
by some 555 water utilities of various types,
including investor-owned, municipal and
not-for-profit entities, across 92 counties.
As is common in the United States,
regulation of water is decentralized and state
agencies with such responsibilities include
the Indiana Department of Environmental
Management (IDEM), Indiana Utility
Regulatory Commission (IURC), Indiana
Department of Natural Resources (IDNR)
and Indiana State Department of Health
(ISDH). However, a greater emphasis on
collaboration is taking place in Central
Indiana with city and utility leaders.
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who has
served as Co-Chair of the U.S. Conference
of Mayors Water Council, cites progress
in water infrastructure as one of the most
significant accomplishments during his two
terms. As an example, he notes the transfer
of the city’s water and wastewater utilities to
Citizens Energy Group, a public charitable
trust that is now the state’s largest water
and wastewater utility. Citizens is now
making significant investments to upgrade
its infrastructure, including a massive $1.6
billion underground tunnel system that has
been expanded to store 250 million gallons
of wastewater below the city.
That tunnel system, known as “DigIndy,”
was part of a city agreement with U.S.
EPA to reduce combined sewer and storm
water overflows by 2025. In the past, as
little as 0.25 inches of rain on the flat city
topography could exceed sewer capacity and
cause overflows into the White River. “We’re
Repurposing a limestone quarry as a new reservoir will secure Central Indiana’s water supply for 15 years.
10
building 28 miles of tunnels that will prevent
sewage overflows from polluting our rivers
and streams. Over the next two years, our
investments will support more than 13,000
good-paying jobs to help fuel economic
development in our community,” said Jeff
Harrison, who became CEO of Citizens
Energy Group in July. The combined
water, wastewater and natural gas utility
serves 800,000 residential, commercial and
industrial customers in Central Indiana.
Such infrastructure improvements are also
creating new awareness of water issues
in Indianapolis, including Reconnecting
Our Waterways, a grassroots effort that
has drawn dozens of organizations to use
a collective impact model to improve
neighborhoods by better appreciating water
resources. Another effort in Indianapolis is
a “living laboratory” model that has been
organized by Global Water Technologies in
partnership with Indiana University – Purdue
University at Indianapolis, the urban campus
of the state’s leading research institutions.
The living laboratory concept seeks to
demonstrate the benefits of new technologies
by deploying them in a real-world setting
where results can be monitored and shared
with other utilities in the state. Initial efforts
are focusing in better water usage data
tools, advanced leak detection and pipeline
rehabilitation methods developed in Europe
and the United States.
One area identified for the living lab
runs along a new corridor just northwest
of downtown Indianapolis that is being
A major development along the White River just northwest of downtown Indianapolis, the 16 Tech initiative highlights Indiana’s strength in technology and life sciences.
planned to highlight the state’s strength in
technology. This “16 Tech” initiative began
to take shape in the past year after property
from the city’s former water company
headquarters had been made available for a
major mixed-use development expected to
include a world-class bioresearch institute
and technology space. State and private
funding totaling $50 million has been
pledged for this effort.
Another innovative effort to address future
water supply issues in Central Indiana
involved the unusual approach of creating
a major new water source by flooding an
88-acre stone quarry to repurpose it into
a new reservoir. The 230 feet deep quarry
is expected to hold 2.7 billion gallons and
provide water for more than 15 years of
future growth in the region.
At an Indiana Water Summit held over the
summer, collaboration in the state was also
a major topic, with the announcement of
a regional planning initiative involving
several utilities and communities. The
Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission
also announced a fall billing symposium
to identify best practices and better service
for utility customers, and state legislators
have highlighted the need to leverage
opportunities with regional water clusters
which drive local innovation in water
technologies.
“I believe today represents material
progress in how we put water at the center
of economic development,” said Indiana
Governor Mike Pence at the summit, as he
signed several new state laws to monitor the
state’s water supply and better enable water
infrastructure funding. “Our water resources
are a vital part of our future economic
success.”
Erik Hromadka is the CEO of Global
Water Technologies, a company based
in Indiana that is developing solutions
to improve water efficiency. More
information about the company is
available at: gwtr.com
11
Granular Activated Carbon
For Treatment Of Algal Toxins
Algae occur naturally in both marine and
fresh water. Nurtured by sunlight, warm
water temperatures, and a food source
(typically phosphorus), algae can bloom
on water surfaces. Harmful algal blooms
can cause a variety of problems to the
environment, as well as posing a threat to
human health. Those coming in contact
with water contaminated with algal toxins
experience flu-like symptoms and/or skin
rashes.
Of particular interest to water and health
experts is blue-green algae, also known as
cyanobacteria. There are more than 3,000
known species of cyanobacteria and they
can tolerate a wide range of environmental
conditions. While not all of these species
produce toxins, those that do can produce
a variety of harmful substances, including
hepatotoxin, neurotoxin, dermatotoxin,
cytotoxin and endotoxin – all of which
impact the human body and its organs in a
harmful and sometimes fatal way.
Of these toxins, the three most widely
recognized as being linked to human health
issues are:
•
Microcystin-LR (hepatotoxin)
•
Cylindrospermopsin (hepatotoxin)
•
Anatoxin-A (neurotoxin)
All three of these toxins have been widely
found in the United States and throughout
Europe and Asia.
Although monitoring has been sporadic,
tested toxins have been broadly detected
throughout North America and the world. In
the United States, microcystin-LR has been
found in North Dakota, South Dakota, New
Mexico, Arkansas and the Pacific Northwest.
Anatoxin-A has been commonly detected in
12
Washington, Nebraska and Florida.
In 2013, an international research team
examined the relationship between the
amount of phosphorus recorded in 1,500
European lakes and reservoirs and the
growth of cyanobacteria. The results showed
23% of the tested water masses in Spain
exceed the level established by the World
Health Organization (WHO). The percentage
is close to 50% for Germany and the
Netherlands.
There have been four major cyanobacteria
outbreaks:
•
In 1989, the deaths of several dogs and
lambs were directly attributed to the
consumption of algae-laden water from
the margins of Rutland (UK) water
storage reservoir;
•
In 1996, 130 dialysis patients in
Brazil were sickened by microcystin
contaminated water, at least 50 died;
•
In the Paulo Alfonso region of Brazil
water from a newly flooded dam
developed a severe algal bloom. The
drinking water caused a gastroenteritis
outbreak and 88 deaths;
•
Recently, the levels of microcystin (as
high as 3.8 ug/l level) caused a “Do Not
Drink” order for over 400,000 residents
utilizing water from the The Collins
Park Water Treatment plant in Toledo,
Ohio.
In 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) issued health advisories
to protect Americans from algal toxins in
drinking water. The health advisory values
for algal toxins recommend 0.3 micrograms
per liter for microcystin and 0.7 micrograms
per liter for cylindrospermopsin as levels
not to be exceeded in drinking water for
children younger than school age. For all
other ages, the health advisory values for
drinking water are 1.6 micrograms per liter
for microcystin and 3.0 micrograms per liter
for cylindrospermopsin.
Recognizing the need to address a national
challenge, the U.S. House of Representatives
voted on February 24, 2015 to approve H.R
.212 which directs the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to develop
a strategic plan to assess and manage
the risks associated with algal toxins in
drinking water. The U.S. Senate has taken
up a similar bill (S. 460 - Drinking Water
Protection Act).
Additionally, the World Health Organization
has issued a guideline of 1ug/l for
Microcystin-LR, while individual states and
provinces have established guidelines or
advisory levels which vary from region to
region:
MicroAnacystin-LR toxinA
Cylindrospermospin
Ohio
1ug/l
20ug/l
1ug/l
Oklahoma
1ug/l
Oregon
1ug/l
3ug/l
1ug/l
Minnesota
0.04ug/l
Florida
Quebec
10ug/l
1.5ug/l
3.7ug/l
In a different approach, the UK Water
Industry Research has developed Short-Term
No Adverse Response Levels (SNARL):
24 hr. Health Based
SNARL
7 Day Health
Based Snarl
Microcystin-LR
12ug/l
6ug/l
Cylindrospermopsin
9ug/l
4.5ug/l
Anatoxin-A
3ug/l
Not only does a community suffer
major inconvenience when a drinking
water treatment plant shuts down, it also
experiences major economic damage as
retail stores, malls, restaurants, schools,
public facilities, and many other businesses
are forced to close due to the lack of potable
water. These guidelines and regulations are
an important step in keeping the public safe
from intoxicated drinking water.
Prevention or at least the minimization of
algal blooms is imperative in protecting
drinking waters. By limiting the nitrogen
and phosphorous nutrients that control
growth rates, all algal blooms, including
cyanobacteria, can be lessened. The United
States has implemented several strategies
to control agricultural runoff, restrict the
discharge of untreated wastewater, and
implement treatment technologies in
wastewater treatment plants that will reduce
the nutrients entering the water resources.
However, the widespread detections of
various algal toxins indicate there is more to
be done.
1.5ug/l
Many water treatment processes can help
protect against the intrusion of algal toxins
into drinking water systems. One of the
most effective and affordable treatment
options is granular activated carbon (GAC),
which is already in use for such purposes in
many regions.
GAC: Proven in Efficiency
activated carbon
In August 2014, more than 400,000 residents
in Toledo, OH lost access to drinking water
when the Toledo Drinking Water Treatment
System shut down because of algal blooms
on Lake Erie. Interestingly, the 30,000
residents of Bowling Green, OH – down
river from Toledo, using the same Lake
Erie water – remained unaffected. The
difference was the use of granular activated
carbon at the Bowling Green Drinking Water
Treatment Plant.
The use of granular activated carbon (GAC)
for the treatment of drinking water is a
well-established practice among municipal
water utilities in the United States. Since
the 1960s, GAC has been used to remove
dissolved organic compounds from water,
including those emanating from algal
blooms, chemical spills, and oil spills.
GAC has also proven effective in removing
microcystins and anatoxins as well as
cylindrotoxins and saxitoxins.
The ability of GAC to protect against algal
toxins while simultaneously addressing other
critical challenges, such as carcinogenic
disinfection by-products, volatile organic
compounds, endocrine disrupting
compounds and many others, makes the
treatment a uniquely effective and affordable
solution for municipal water providers.
About Calgon Carbon
Calgon Carbon Corporation, headquartered
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a global
leader in innovative solutions, high quality
products and reliable services designed to
protect human health and the environment
from harmful contaminants in water, and
air. As a leading manufacturer of activated
carbon, with broad capabilities in ultraviolet
light disinfection, the Company provides
purification solutions for drinking water,
wastewater, pollution abatement, and
a variety of industrial and commercial
manufacturing processes.
algae bloom
13
Photoionization For Plant Odor Control:
Cleaner Air, Lower Energy Costs
Oliver G. Augustin, NEUTRALOX ® Umwelttechnik GmbH
The control of odor emissions has become
a major consideration in the design and
operation of wastewater conveyance,
treatment and residuals processing facilities.
As public concern is generally increasing,
effective odor control has become an
essential part of successful wastewater and
biosolids treatment processes.
Odor is released by nearly all steps of
wastewater and sludge collection, treatment
and disposal. Typically, these odors are
considered to be objectionable. Depending
on the treatment process they may even be
hazardous. Odorants released are differing
Headworks odor control by Neutralox® Photoionisation.
14
much in kind and conditions and require
adapted treatment.
One of the most common and well-known
odor substances is hydrogen sulfide (H2S).
The odor threshold of H2S is very low (0.5
ppb) which helps the human nose to identify
rotten food easily. This warning signal turns
into a nuisance, if the odor is associated with
wastewater.
The H2S exposure limits set by OSHA are
10 and 20 ppm respectively, depending
on application. “NIOSH Recommended
Exposure Limit (REL): 10 ppm, 10-minute
ceiling concentration. Considered
immediately dangerous to life and health
(IDLH): 100 ppm. ACGIH® recommends a
threshold limit value (TLV®) of 1 ppm as an
8-hour time weighted average (TWA) and a
short-term exposure limit (STEL) of 5 ppm.”
(compare www.osha.gov). In Germany, the
“maximum working place concentration“
for H2S is 7.1 mg/m³, which is equivalent to
approx. 5 ppm.
Despite the fact that H2S is commonly
known as a wastewater odorant, wastewater
treatment plants seldom stink like rotten
eggs. Wastewater odors are typically a
mixture of many different odor substances,
including other reduced sulfur substances,
ammonia, and volatile organic carbons,
among others.
Inside process buildings, control of
concentrations of odor substances is possible
only through dilution (air-exchange). Air-
exchange rates of 6 or 12 times per hour are
the most common in the US. This results
in relatively high off-gas flow rates. The
extracted off-gas then requires treatment
in order to protect the neighborhood of the
treatment plants.
Odor control analysis
Odor control based on photoionization has
proven to be a reliable treatment technology,
applicable for all kinds of odors related
to wastewater and sludge treatment. The
physico-chemical treatment method treats
even high concentrations of odorants (e.g.
hydrogen sulphide (H2S), mercaptans
(CH3-SH, CH3-CH2-SH), dimethyl sulfide
((CH3)2S), ammonia (NH3)) effectively.
Additionally, typical industrial odorants like
volatile organic carbons (VOC’s) have been
treated successfully. The technology is not
Sewage pumping station odor control by Neutralox® Photoionisation
affected by varying loads and changing offgas conditions. The maintenance demand is
minimal; no liquid side streams are required
or produced.
The German manufacturer Neutralox has
developed Photoionisation into a widely
accepted odor control technology. While
primarily active in Europe, Neutralox
officially opened a subsidiary in Chicago
early this year and can already refer to a
large number of reference projects all over
North America (www.neutralox-inc.com).
Installations worldwide
Installations worldwide
15
Transforming Wastewater Biosolids
Into A New Product
Water Equipment and Policy (WEP) Research Center
Researchers at Marquette University
are developing pyrolysis technology to
create biochar from biosolids. Their work
addresses some of the world’s greatest
challenges: decreasing greenhouse gases,
removing micropollutants from wastewater,
increasing production of renewable
fuels, and improving crop production in
unproductive soils.
Biochar is a product of pyrolysis during
which biosolids are heated in oxygendeprived environments, producing carbon.
Biochar, a porous charcoal-like material
that can be made through manufacturing
and by nature during forest fires, sequesters
carbon that would otherwise escape into
the atmosphere. And when it’s integrated
into soil biochar enhances plant growth
by retaining moisture and nutrients, and
promoting the growth of beneficial microbes.
Pyrolysis actually creates three products;
biochar, py-oil and syngas (mostly H2 and
CO). Py-oil and syngas are renewable
energy sources that can be tapped to fuel the
pyrolysis process or for other purposes.
Drs. Daniel Zitomer and Patrick McNamara
are creating biochar from common
wastewater biosolids, that is, the end
products of water reclamation facilities
(WRFs), often land applied or disposed of in
landfills at a cost to the utility.
Marquette’s research is funded by the Water
Equipment and Policy (WEP) Research
Center that operates under the auspices of
the National Science Foundation Industry/
University Cooperative Research Center
(I/UCRC) program. The Marquette team
is collaborating with the Milwaukee
Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD),
one of WEP’s industrial members whose
annual dues fund the research, and who will
benefit from the results.
Since 1926 MMSD has marketed a
revenue-producing organic fertilizer
manufactured from biosolids. This fertilizer
is manufactured to stringent quality control
standards, and any product that fails to
measure up will not be sold to its traditional
markets where variations in particle size and
iron content can affect ease of application
and performance. However, this out-of-spec
product is suitable for land application in
agriculture where users are less sensitive to
particle size and iron content.
Marquette’s challenge is to develop a
process that cost-effectively converts this
material and biosolids into biochar, yet
another revenue-producing product for
MMSD that can be sold for land application
to improve soil productivity.
Marquette’s research has three goals.
Biosolids converted to biochar, pyrolysis-oil, and pyrolysis
aqueous condensate
16
1. Transform wastewater biosolids into
biochar.
2. Further activate the biochar to adsorb
nutrients from wastewater and
then release them when applied to
agricultural soil.
3. Determine the extent that pyrolysis
destroys micropollutants, such as
pharmaceuticals that may now pass
though WRFs into the environment.
When left to decompose naturally over
time, wastewater biosolids, as well as plant,
wood and forestry waste, release carbon as a
greenhouse gas. Transforming this waste into
biochar could lock it up for centuries, which
is the reason scientists around the world are
researching it.
With so many scientists focusing on
transforming wastes into biochar,
how is Marquette’s pyrolysis research
different? Drs. Zitomer’s and McNamara’s
groundbreaking research is focused on
wastewater biosolids (rather than wood or
other biomass) and will lead to the design of
production-size pyrolysis systems for WRFs.
Upgrading WRFs with pyrolysis systems has
several potential advantages.
•
WRFs are geographically concentrated
in urban areas.
•
WRFs have a steady supply of biomass
in the form of biosolids to feed the
process.
•
Removal of ammonia from return lines
in WRFs using biochar as an adsorbent
may help recover and remove nitrogen.
•
Pyrolysis may provide a higher level of
protection to waterways by removing
micropollutants that may have
heretofore passed through WRFs.
Marquette PhD candidate Dan Carey
researched whether biochar can adsorb
nutrients to be later released after being
applied to agricultural soil.
Furnace with pyrolysis reactor, condenser, and water bath
The research demonstrated that the nitrogen
in heat-dried biosolids is retained in the
biochar but is locked in the solid matrix
and not readily available to promote plant
growth.
To increase the porosity and surface areas
of the biochar with the intended outcome
of increasing nutrient adsorption, a portion
of biochar was activated with a potassium
hydroxide solution.
He then contacted the activated biochar with
centrate that had a high concentration of
ammonia from biosolids dewatering. The
biochar adsorbed the ammonia to create
what Carey calls “biochar-N”. Using 35
benchtop planters, Carey measured the
differences in growth of turf grass planted
as seed in different combinations of sand,
peat, biochar, biochar-N, Milorganite® and
inorganic fertilizer.
This picture is from day 95 of the experiment and both
planters were trimmed to the same height of 2.5 cm (1 inch)
7 days before this photograph, Left- 10% biochar-N, Right –
Sand Only
Carey’s results demonstrated that biochar
production from digested biosolids may
have additional advantages beyond simply
infections and inner-ear infections.
digesting biosolids. It can be used to
immobilize NH3-N from wastewater and
transfer it from the WRF to soil. There are
many potential advantages of this method
compared to the current practice of land
applying biosolids. Among these are:
•
Long-term improvement of soil
productivity
•
Long-term sequestration of carbon
•
Energy recovery in the form of bio-oil
and syngas
•
The vast majority of older established WRFs
designed primarily to remove nutrients
may be incapable of intercepting PPCPs.
Additionally, retrofitting these plants may be
cost-prohibitive.
WRFs were designed to intercept nutrients
before they enter waterways, and convert
them to biosolids. Some biosolids have
been land applied as fertilizer. But for
those WRFs not equipped with systems
comparable to MMSD’s heat-drying
process that virtually eliminates pathogenic
organisms, land application is becoming
more difficult due to increasingly stringent
regulations.
Another issue of growing concern is
a variety of micropollutants appear to
be passing through some WRFs and
accumulating in lakes and streams. Dr.
Rebecca Klapper, Associate Professor at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School
of Freshwater Sciences has conducted
extensive research on the presence of
pharmaceuticals and personal care products
(PPCPs) that have been transported to
Lake Michigan in wastewater discharge.
Her research on how PPCPs affect the
reproductive behavior of fish has raised
questions on the human impact of these
micropollutants present in surface water
and ingested through drinking water. Dr.
Klapper’s research shows some of the most
prevalent PPCPs found in Lake Michigan,
a source of drinking water for millions of
people to be:
•
Metformin, a prescription diabetes
medicine.
•
Caffeine, found from some natural
sources but also from coffee, tea, and
soda pop and energy drinks.
•
Sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic used
to treat ailments such as urinary tract
Triclosan, an antibacterial and
antifungal agent found in many
consumer products, including toothpaste
and antibacterial soaps.
Researchers at Marquette believe that
pyrolysis could be an economicallypossible alternative. Just as pyrolysis
sequesters carbon and other nutrients,
Marquette is conducting research funded
by WEP to determine whether PPCPs can
be locked up in biochar and/or removed in
the WRF before being discharged into the
environment.
For 25 centuries the secrets of biochar
remained hidden deep in Brazil’s Amazon
jungle. The Amazon’s “Terra Preta” has
been known since the mid 1800s but the
rich black soil created by early Brazilian
civilizations mixing biochar into their soil
has received intense international scrutiny
in recent years. Marquette’s WEP financed
research is creating new opportunities to
leverage this ancient practice in addressing
today’s most serious global challenges.
The Water Equipment and Policy (WEP)
Research Center operates under the
auspices of the National Science Foundation
Industry/University Cooperative Research
Center (I/UCRC) Program. WEP is a
collaborative nonprofit organization of
research universities and members including
corporations and government agencies
whose annual membership fees fund precompetitive research in four areas important
to the water industry: materials, sensors
and devices, systems, and policy.
Companies and organizations in the U.S.
and overseas interested in collaborating
on creating the next generation of water
technology and products are encouraged to
learn more about WEP by emailing Dave
Marsh at marshd@uwm.edu and visiting
www.uwm.edu/wep/.
17
Water in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development
In Pennsylvania, water is not only vital for
quality of life — it also powers many key
industries that comprise a major piece of the
state’s diverse economy. The manufacturing,
thermoelectric, agriculture and energy
sectors all rely heavily on access to reliable,
clean and abundant sources of water for
various processes. With a combined 2.5
trillion gallons of surface water and 80
trillion gallons of groundwater, in addition to
86,000 miles of streams and rivers, and more
than 1 million water wells, Pennsylvania has
the water resources businesses need to be
successful and sustainable.
Pennsylvania also offers industry a prime
location within 500 miles of 60 percent of
United States and Canadian populations,
and has convenient access to six of the
10 largest markets in the U.S. Bolstering
its far-reaching infrastructure is its robust
port system, composed of the Ports of
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Erie, each
contributing unique advantages both to instate and global companies.
Port of Philadelphia
Situated in a strategic location on the
Delaware River with direct access to the
Delaware Bay and Atlantic Ocean, the
Port of Philadelphia has served as a major
hub of trade and commerce since the time
of Pennsylvania founder William Penn.
Prominent in specialized trade areas,
including perishable cargo, paper products,
and meat imports, the port ranks in the
top 25 nationally for total tonnage at 28.5
million tons of goods annually. In 2012,
the U.S. Department of Defense named it
the 14th Strategic Military Port in the U.S.,
enabling it to handle military cargoes with
various international destinations. The Port
of Philadelphia handles more than one-
18
Port of Philadelphia
quarter of the entire North Atlantic District’s
annual tonnage and is ranked as the 4th
largest port in the U.S. for the handling of
imported goods.
With considerable refrigerated and freezer
warehousing space as close as 90 feet from
the dock, the Port can handle temperaturesensitive cargoes, including fruits,
vegetables and other agricultural products.
Due to the vast resources in the Marcellus
Shale play, the Port is also evolving into an
energy hub which soon will facilitate the
export of natural gas, compressed natural
gas, and liquid gas.
Additionally, the Philadelphia Regional
Port Authority has embarked on a project
to dredge the Delaware River, deepening
the waterway from 40 to 45 feet from
Philadelphia Harbor to deep water in the
Delaware Bay. The deeper channel will
provide for more efficient transportation
of containerized break bulk, dry and liquid
bulk (crude oil and petroleum products
and chemicals) cargo to and from the
Delaware River ports, as well as enable the
port to accommodate more of the world’s
larger cargo ships. This partnership with
the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the
commonwealth is scheduled to be completed
in 2017.
Port of Pittsburgh
The second-busiest inland port in the U.S.,
the Port of Pittsburgh moves more than
35 million tons of cargo annually along its
three major waterways. The state’s natural
gas boom is transforming the Monongahela
Valley into a prime area for growth,
as waterborne transportation has been
recognized as the most cost-effective mode
of transportation when compared to railway
and truck modes. These savings offer
companies located in or choosing to locate
during the 2014 navigation season compared
to the previous year.
“The Great Lakes Seaway System realized
a 7.6 percent tonnage increase from 2013 to
2014, a strong performance that reflects the
increasing strength of the overall economy,”
said SLSDC Administrator Betty Sutton.
“Marine transportation remains a catalyst
for jobs and productivity for the local
economies where these ports are situated and
throughout the Great Lakes region.”
Port of Pittsburgh
in the Port of Pittsburgh District a substantial
transportation advantage in sourcing raw
materials or marketing finished products.
More than $9 billion worth of goods is
moved along the waterways through the
Port of Pittsburgh District each year. The 35
million tons of cargo the Port of Pittsburgh
ships and receives each year equates to an
annual benefit to the region of more than
$800 million.
The Army Corp of Engineers has committed
funds to complete the lower Monongahela
River project — an investment which will
also catalyze new opportunity in the region.
The project has already replaced the nearly
100 year-old fixed-crest dam at Braddock
Locks and Dam with a gated dam, and will
remove Locks and Dam 3 in Elizabeth, and
construct two new larger locks (Charleroi
Locks) at Locks and Dam 4 in Charleroi.
Electric Transportation exported 27 narrowgauge locomotives through the Port of Erie
for a mining operation in Mozambique. The
port’s terminal operator also handled three
large transformers that were destined for
Massena, New York.
The Port of Erie was nationally recognized
for increasing its annual shipping tonnage
in 2014. The U.S. Saint Lawrence Seaway
Development Corporation announced that
seven U.S. ports in the Great Lakes St.
Lawrence Seaway System received the
prestigious Robert J. Lewis Pacesetter Award
for registering increases in international
cargo tonnage shipped through their ports
Commodities accounting for almost all of
the increases in international cargo handled
by the seven Pacesetter port winners
included asphalt, petroleum products,
aluminum, steel, and grain.
High-value project cargo such as
locomotive cars, electrical transformers, and
fermentation tanks were also handled during
the 2014 navigation season.
The commonwealth’s vast water resources
and strategic waterways are just two of the
ways that Pennsylvania is built to advance a
wide range of industries that rely on a strong
water-based infrastructure. For additional
information visit newpa.com.
Port of Erie
Located within a 300-mile radius of onethird of the U.S. population, the Port of Erie
handles 550,000 tons in cargo volume each
year. It also contributes to the recreational
and tourism market and is home to a $42
million shipbuilding industry. Its main
export markets are Europe and Canada,
and on the import side, the Port is seeking
expanded use in frack sand shipping to
support Pennsylvania’s Shale Gas boom
and other energy findings. In 2014, General
Port of Erie
19
Wastewater Recycling And Reuse
In Shale Gas Drilling
Tom Lewis, President & CTO, Lewis Environmental Services
The United States’ energy supply market
has improved significantly over the
past five years with the development of
unconventional natural gas reserves. The
United States has 2,247 trillion cubic
feet (Tcf) of natural gas proved reserves
and unproved technically recoverable
resources, including major contributions
from unconventional resources from shale
and coalbed methane. The US Energy
Information Administration (EIA) maintains
that the sudden increase in natural gas
production from shale plays is directly
related to horizontal hydraulic fracturing.
The abundance of domestic shale gas
resources combined with increased activity
developing “wet” gas which contains liquid
hydrocarbons has spurred gas exploration
across this country. There are approximately
22 shale basins located onshore in more than
20 states across the US including Texas,
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, West
Virginia, Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota,
West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and
Ohio, Michigan.
Experts believe that the increasing demand
for all forms of energy, including natural gas,
will make its production a growth market.
The United States has an abundant supply of
unconventional natural gas with production
growing exponentially, increasing from
less than a billion cubic feet a day in 1998
to more than 6 billion cubic feet per day in
2010. This is a compound annual rate of
growth of more than 20% and a combined
growth rate of 600% over the last ten years.
The fact that end users are very often located
near gas supplies has prompted analysts
to predict continued growth in natural gas
supply. There are an estimated 75,000 wells
20
to be drilled in the Marcellus Shale play
alone.
“The development of shale gas plays
has become a “game changer” for the
U.S. natural gas market.”- U.S. Energy
Information Administration
Marcellus Shale Play
The Oil and Gas industry generates more
than $7.1 billion in revenue per year for
Pennsylvania. Natural gas exploration in
Pennsylvania has gained a tremendous
shot in the arm with the drilling of the
Marcellus Shale. The Marcellus Shale is
a rock formation that stretches from New
York through West Virginia and covers about
two-thirds of Pennsylvania. It has been
proven to contain vast reserves of untapped
natural gas. Marcellus Shale is said to have
“favorable mineralogy” in that it is a lowerdensity rock with more porosity, which
means it may be filled with more free gas. To
recover these 50 trillion cubic feet of gas a
horizontal drilling technique called hydraulic
fracturing (also known as “fracking”) is
used. Large volumes of fresh water are
injected into a well at pressures so intense
that the structure cracks, or “fractures.”
The water generally is treated with a
friction reducer, biocides, scale inhibitors,
surfactants, and sand as the propping agent.
The fracking process for a horizontal well
completion can require as much as 6 million
gallons of water. It is projected that in five
years, daily water consumption for gas
well drilling in Pennsylvania will exceed
25,000,000 gallons per day. It is projected
in the same time period, annual water fees
and disposal cost will exceed $2.2 Billion
per year. The need for large quantities
of fresh water to facilitate horizontal gas
drilling has placed tremendous pressure
on water resources, namely rivers and
streams. Pennsylvania’s Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) has
modified the permitting process to require
drillers to identify the fresh water source, as
well as how and where the frack waste water
will be disposed. Along with obtaining the
fresh water, disposing of the frack water has
become increasingly difficult.
Approximately 20-25% of the frack water
is recovered in the first few weeks of
operation, known as “flowback”. Flowback
contains multiple contaminates, namely oil/
grease, soluble organics, trace metals and
extremely high concentration of chlorides.
Typically, flowback water is captured in
lined pits and transported off-site to deep
well injection facilities for disposal. Recent
water management trends have initiated
the practice of blending frack water with
fresh water in a 15% to 85% ratio. Large
drillers use the blended water to drill the
next well(s). The Shale Gas industry is
marketing this recycling trend as an answer
to their environmental problems, but they
are still in need of water treatment capacity.
Also, heavily recycled wastewater is more
contaminated than normal frack water with
deep well injection being the only disposal
option. In the end, heavily recycled frack
water has diminished most recycling options.
Additionally, medium and small drillers
are having a difficult time finding
disposal options for their waste. In one
report, a smaller firm transported tanker
loads of waste over 150 miles to find an
available treatment facility. Additionally,
Pennsylvania passed new regulations in
August 2010 making disposal of frack
water more difficult. This was followed
by a voluntary moratorium issued by
Pennsylvania’s Governor in May 2011 on
dumping frack water at municipal treatment
plants. Gas drillers have a second option
for processing the frack wastewater, deep
well injection. Marcellus Shale gas drillers,
unlike the Texas’s Barnett Shale, have
limited deep well disposal options because
Pennsylvania has less than nine permitted
deep well injection sites. Most frack water
is transported to Ohio or West Virginia for
disposal. This has caused a disposal capacity
crunch for Marcellus Shale gas drillers.
Gas Drillers working in the Marcellus
Shale use direct recycling of “blended”
frack water and deep well injection for
frack wastewater disposal. Currently, there
are limited technologies to recycle frack
water and produce a high purity effluent
and only two commercially operating
facilities in Pennsylvania which produce
high purity water from Marcellus Shale
frack water. For the Marcellus Shale play
to realize the anticipated growth, the need
for fresh water supply and expanding
frack wastewater treatment options must
be addressed. Technologies which enable
water recycling, by-product recovery and
provide environmentally friendly treatment
options will aid in the desired growth of
this industry. Conventional waste treatment
practices are deficient and inept in providing
solutions to eliminate toxic waste from being
dumped into rivers or injected into the earth.
The industry practice of heavily recycling
frack water has made this problem more
difficult to remediate.
Recycling technologies have had moderate
success upgrading frack water due to
increasing contaminate levels. Presently,
five disposal and/or recovery processes are
expected to assist drillers recycle more frack
water. They are: reverse osmosis; ozonation;
evaporation techniques, carbon adsorption
and deep well injection. A brief discussion of
these recovery options and their advantages
and disadvantages follows:
Reverse Osmosis – This technology has
been proposed as a viable treatment option
for fracwastewater. The major limitation
of reverse osmosis (RO) is its inability to
process a waste stream with very high level
of chlorides. Normally, frack wastewater
has chloride concentrations averaging
80,000 mg/l. This is 2 – 3 times more
concentrated than seawater. Based on how
reverse osmosis works, the rejection rate
(water still needing treatment) would exceed
50%. Also, the organic contaminants in the
frack wastewater would foul the membranes,
requiring frequent membrane replacements.
The writer is not aware of any RO units
commercially processing this type of waste.
Ozonation – Ozone is the tri-atomic form of
oxygen (O3). Because ozone is unstable it
must be generated at the point of application.
Ozone can be generated by passing oxygen,
or air containing oxygen, through an area
having an electrical discharge or spark.
The major disadvantages with ozone
generation are: high capital cost, high
electric consumption and its highly corrosive
to metals and plastics. Reactor design
requires exotic materials of construction,
such as titanium or hastelloy. Ozone based
technologies have gained substantial
coverage in the press, but have not been
aggressively installed in the field.
Evaporation – Recycling the water is
accomplished by boiling off sufficient water
from the frack waste stream to return to the
drilling operation. This is a very energyintensive process and the type of unit and
design is critical. Also, the cost of evaporator
equipment is high and maintenance is
required. Additionally, organic impurities
are a major problem because they can
contaminate the recovered distillate.
Normally, additional unit processes such as
ion exchange and/or activated carbon are
required to remove inorganic and organic
impurities.
Deep Well Injection – On the surface, this
appears to be the most attractive option
to gas drillers, but upon closer inspection,
it is actually the most expensive. Deep
well injection has three key inherent
weaknesses: (1) it’s location sensitive.
Most Marcellus Shale wells are not close
to deep well injections facilities, which
require trucking frack water over large
distances. For example, the roundtrip time
from Williamsport, PA to an Ohio deep well
site is a 12-hour trip at a transportation cost
averaging $0.25 per gallon; (2) cost to install
deep well averages $2MM; (3) they have
limited capacity. They can handled a limited
volume of wastewater on a daily basis;
and (4) environmental issues. Deep wells
are known to be susceptible to plugging
from scale formation and can cause surface
tremors. Tremors have been observed at
several deep well facilities causing the
facility to reduce daily disposal volumes .
Carbon Adsorption – This mobile
treatment process enables frack water to be
successfully recycled back to the drilling
operation. The proprietary treated activated
carbon simultaneously removes organic and
inorganic compounds. The final effluent is
of such purity that it can be recycled back
to the well site to supplement fresh water
requirements for new drilling.
Additional work is still needed to
significantly reduce the disposal of frack
water.
21
Implementing Sustainable and Resilient
Energy Initiatives in Water and Sewer Systems:
City of Grand Rapids, MI
Dr. Haris Alibašic
Despite the lack of a unifying national
energy policy and a varying patchwork of
state-level energy policies, communities
across the country are attempting to realize
the benefits of sustainable energy programs
and projects. The role of the sustainable
energy plan for local governments is to
identify and prioritize programs based on
specific community needs, thereby leading
to implementation of the programs most
likely to accomplish those goals. The City
of Grand Rapids’ focus on sustainable
energy efficiency has resulted in projects
completed or underway shedding nearly 6
million kilowatt hours of electricity from its
operations over the past 7 years. Most of the
avoidance and savings come from services
related to water, wastewater, stormwater,
and sewer systems management. Overall,
the city is seeing over $600,000 annually in
cost avoidance related to power purchase
with the energy efficiency programs it has
implemented since 2009. In addition, the
city has received more than $430,000 in
energy efficiency rebates from Consumers
Energy since 2009. The City provides water
and wastewater services on a regional basis,
serving a population of over 280,000 and
covering a service area of 137 square-miles.
Its partnering communities in the water and
wastewater services system are represented
through the Utility Advisory Board (UAB).
UAB members have been actively involved
in reviewing energy related projects that
lead to more efficient operations. The City’s
ability to deliver public services in
a timely, cost-effective, and socially- and
environmentally-responsible manner are
essential components of sustainable water
and wastewater service delivery to residents
and businesses.
22
Electricity
Heating and Cooling
The City of Grand Rapids spends more on electricity than any other utility,
over $8 million each year. Addressing electricity consumption and cost
related to power supply is essential.
Michigan’s midwest climate and climate change results in a number of days
that require significant heating and cooling of buildings.
Fuel Management
While the City’s consumption is down, overall costs continue to rise due to
price increases.
Renewable Energy
Inherent to the sustainability approach is the adoption of renewable energy
to reduce and eventually discontinue the use of fossil fuels.
Pump and Process
Equipment
Pumping operations can consume significant amounts of energy at wastewater and water treatment plants. It is the primary electrical demand in water
plants and in many cases, second only to aeration in wastewater plants.
Alibašić (2015) City of Grand Rapids Five Key Components of Sustainable Energy Management
Sustainable Energy Activities
The City of Grand Rapids regularly
and consistently analyzes cost-effective
opportunities for on-site energy generation,
including the use of solar panels and
geothermal production technologies. In
2009, the City developed the Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Strategy
(EECS) as a roadmap for becoming a more
energy-efficient and sustainable organization
and community. Implementation of the
EECS was funded by the Department
of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and
Conservation Block Grant (EECBG). With
the development of this strategy, the City
gained a comprehensive understanding
of the greenhouse gas emissions of its
facilities and fleet, as well as the emissions
generated in the community from residential,
commercial, industrial, and transportationrelated activities. The main focus of the
energy efficiency strategy for the City is
to reduce or avoid cost in operations and
improve energy management.
Most of the savings are realized in water and
wastewater operations. Some of the more
recent energy efficiency projects include:
•
•
New variable-speed water pump at
the city’s Coldbrook Pumping Station
•
The new pump allows the city to
match the pumping energy to the
actual water demand, reducing
electricity use and saving the water
system over $140,000 annually.
•
Improvements to the water pumping
facility resulted in a more than
$147,100 energy efficiency incentive
payment from Consumers Energy in
February 2015.
LEED Certified designation for
Wastewater Technical Services
Building, at 1300 Market Ave SW
•
The building received 45 LEEDrating points, needing at least 40 to
receive the designation.
•
Gained several new energy-efficient
upgrades: LED lighting, on-site
storm water retention and treatment,
energy-efficient heating and an
improved building envelop.
•
•
New technology to monitor treated
wastewater
•
The new system allows for more
efficient operation of treatment
equipment, reducing electricity use.
•
The City received a $57,000 energy
efficiency incentive payment for this
upgrade.
Wastewater Treatment Plant installed
motion sensors and fluorescent lamps
•
Estimated to save $18,500 in
energy costs per year
Joellen Thompson, Water Service Director
for the City stated how she believes
“Organizations need to look into energy
projects with an open mind as an opportunity
to better understand and evaluate operations,
and as a potential to improve operations and
cut costs. We are utilizing all the elements
available to us in our various toolboxes to
achieve energy efficiency, including utilizing
performance contracting.”
Renewable Energy
The City is committed to using 100%
renewable energy for all municipal
structures by 2020 in order to reduce risks
from potential power outages in operations
and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In December 2007, the city entered into a
partnership arrangement with the power
utility Consumers Energy to procure 20
percent of its energy from renewable
sources. In 2015, after the installation of
the solar photovoltaic system at the Water
Administration building, geothermal at two
Fire Stations, and commitment through
enterprise system to procure green energy
purchases, the City of Grand Rapids has a
total of 27% green power as a percentage of
total electricity use. City of Grand Rapids
is ranked 16th on EPA’s Top 30 Local
Government list, which represents the largest
green power users among local government
partners within the Green Power Partnership.
The City has installed a 125 KW
photovoltaic power generation system using
solar panels on the LEED certified Water
Service Facility. The system was operational
in June of 2012 and is offsetting over 35
percent of the facility’s annual electric
consumption, producing nearly 400,000
KWh of green energy since installation in
June of 2012 and offsetting close to 500,000
lbs. of carbon dioxide emissions. The City
has been evaluating other renewable energy
projects, including a potential large-scale
solar project at former landfill site, a solar
project at its water filtration plant, and
a large-scale bio-digester project at its
biosolids operation in partnership with the
City of Wyoming. The key elements to
the City’s sustainable energy management
approach are innovation, resiliency,
partnership, and positive societal impact.
Economic
In the words of Mike Lunn, Environmental
Services Director, “Investments in renewable
energy projects, be it our commitment to
procure green energy through savings from
energy efficiency in our enterprise system or
energy production are an important part of
strategy to positively address water quality
and can also serve as a cost cutting policy.
Our superfund landfill solar project, planned
in partnership with a private vendor, will
deliver overall reduction in cost per kWh
thus positively impacting sewer rates in
our system. Traditional power generates a
negative impact on the environment and
the entire water system. We must do things
differently and be proactive in innovating for
more resilient systems.”
About the author: Dr. Haris Alibašić has 20
years of combined expertise and experience
in international economic development
and the public sector, including working
for the United Nations Mission and the
Office of High Representative in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, and directing energy,
sustainability, and legislative affairs
policies and programs for the City of
Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Alibašić has over
10 years of experience teaching graduate
and undergraduate courses at Grand Valley
State University and Davenport University.
Dr. Alibašić is an Assistant Professor at the
University of West Florida where he teaches
courses in public policy and administration.
Transformation
Investment Plan
Electricity
Sustainability Energy
Plan
Grand Rapids
Sustainability Plan
Social
Energy Efficiency &
Conservation Strategy
Heating and Cooling
Environmental
Renewable Energy
Business Plan
Fuel Management
Governance
Asset Management
Plan
Renewable Energy
Water & Sewer
Capital Projects Plan
Pump and Process
Alibašić (2015) City of Grand Rapids Sustainable Energy and Sustainability Planning and Implementation Process
23
Sustainable Solutions For Full Nutrient Removal
At The Blue Plains WWTP In Washington DC
The Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater
Treatment Plant provides treatment services
to more than two million Washington metro
area customers. It has the capacity to treat
370 million gallons of wastewater a day and
is, according to its operator, DC Water, the
largest plant of its kind in the world. The
treated water is discharged to the Potomac
estuary and there the plant is required to
meet some of the most stringent National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
Standards (NPDES) in the United States.
found that the Hyperboloid-Technology
could provide better mixing at 50% less
energy consumption. Contrary to common
mixers available in the market, the
INVENT Hyperboloid Mixing System was
developed especially for the suspension
and homogenization of biologically active
sludge in anaerobic and anoxic basins of
biological wastewater treatment plants. The
basic design is based on fundamental fluid
mechanical considerations, which led to a
superior mixing system.
One of the crucial parameters in the effluent
is nitrogen. Nitrogen is a primary nutrient
for the growth and survival of plants. If
the nitrogen concentration in a water body
exceeds a certain concentration, it induces
explosive growth of plants and algae. When
such organisms die, the decomposition
process of the biomass in the river causes
a rapid depletion of oxygen in the water
body. Under a certain concentration of
oxygen the aerobic decomposition of the
biomass is no longer possible and anaerobic
microorganisms start to produce toxic
substances e.g. ammonia or methane.
This causes decimation in fish and plant
population, with the result, that the water
body will start emitting bad odors. This
very much undesired phenomenon is called
eutrophication.
To prevent this scenario, DC Water recently
implemented a comprehensive upgrade
program for its biological treatment step to
enhance treatment capacity and to reduce
energy consumption. Therefore, a total of
112 specially-designed, energy-efficient
Hyperboloid-Mixers were delivered from a
German nutrient removal specialist. Prior
to the selection, DC Water ran extensive
tests against standard mixing equipment
available locally and internationally and
24
called ”Deammonification” before they can
be discharged into the normal treatment
process.
Essential for the Deamonnification Process
are the so called “anammox” bacteria which
were discovered in the 1990s. Anammox
bacteria work synergistically with ammonia
oxidizing bacteria to oxidize ammonia
without organic carbon, producing nitrogen
gas. This process requires significantly
less oxygen to remove nitrogen, and less
energy is needed for aeration. Crucial for
1 of 112 HYPERCLASSIC®- Mixers in the Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant in Washington, DC, USA
Currently, the Blue Plains treatment plant is
implementing the world’s largest reactor for
nutrient removal from wastewater coming
from the huge sludge digesters the plant
runs to produce biogas. These waste streams
are extremely high in nitrogen and require
special treatment and a special process
the successful large-scale application of
the Deammonification Process is excellent
mixing at low shear rates in order to not
destroy the sensitive granular anammox
sludge flocs, and an aeration system with
quick response times in order to control the
biological process reliably. For this very
demanding task the INVENT Hyperboloid
Mixing and Aeration System was the first
choice for the DC Water Side-Stream
Treatment Project at the Blue Plains
wastewater treatment plant. The INVENT
Hyperboloid Mixing and Aeration system
is uniquely suited for this advanced process
which could save wastewater utilities
hundreds of million of dollars in aeration
and external carbon costs in the treatment
cycle.
INVENT offers a complete range of fluidmechanically optimized products and
systems for the biological treatment of
wastewater. Next to wastewater treatment,
they also deliver mixing systems with
special features required in drinking water
processing. The most recent project in the
US of this kind is the Carlsbad, CA seawater
desalination project for which INVENT
delivered all flocculation mixers.
1 of 90 HYPERCLASSIC®- Mixer/Aerators in the Back River wastewater treatment plant in Baltimore, MD, USA
E xcE l l EncE i n watE r
Water is the origin and source of all life. The supply of high-quality
water and the treatment of wastewater is one of the most important
goals of our time.
I nV e n T develops, produces and distributes innovative mechanical
equipment, process technology and plants for the treatment of
waer and wastewater.
I nV e n T Environmental Technologies, Inc.
WAT e r A n d WA sT e WAT e r Tr e AT m e n T
216 Little Falls Road Unit 8
Mixers Mixing and Aeration Systems
Cedar Grove, NJ 07009 USA
Membrane Aeration Systems
Tel (973) 571 2223 Fax (973) 571 2474
Software Products System Solutions
WWW.InVenT-eT.COm
25
Adopting Advanced Water Technology
In The Water State
Timothy Nolan, Sustainable Development Expert State of Minnesota
Minnesota is often identified as the Water
State. It is the land of 12,292 lakes and
63,000 miles of rivers and streams, and
has more freshwater than any of the
country’s other contiguous forty-eight
states. Water continues to be part of the
State’s identity and a defining force in our
history, heritage, environment, and quality
of life. Water resources are critical to the
state’s economy, ecology and culture. A
common perception is that Minnesota is
water-rich, but in fact the state’s water
resources are highly heterogeneous. Rates
of groundwater recharge, precipitation,
and evapotranspiration – which determine
the amount of water available for human
and ecosystem use – vary considerably
throughout the state.
Major Challenges
In 2011 after two years of work by
stakeholders from all sectors and
jurisdictions, Minnesota produced a “WaterSustainability Framework: A Plan for Clean,
Abundant Water for Today and Generations
to Come.” This extensive Framework
examined all aspects of water supply and
quality, and identified action areas to achieve
more sustainable solutions. Milestone issues
that significantly affect water resource
management include:
Water Use Power generation is the primary
user (60%); municipal use and irrigation
each use about 13% of the total. Some 90%
of irrigation water comes from the ground
as does 75% of drinking water. Because of
the ample natural water supply, irrigation has
been minimal. However, growing climate
change impacts such as drought conditions
are driving an increase in irrigation and
associated energy use. Overall water use in
Minnesota has generally increased for the
last two decades implying that the efficiency
of water use by people and households in
urban areas is not improving. This trend is
opposite the pattern seen in most parts of the
US.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
26
Population growth and increased
competition for resources
Ecosystem fragmentation
Climate change
Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico
Contaminants of emerging concern,
including endocrine active compounds
Impaired waters and Total Maximum
Daily Loads
The 2006 Clean Water Legacy Act
2008 Clean Water Land and Legacy
Amendment and Sustainability Goal
The Future of Energy and Minnesota’s
Water Resources, a July 2010 study funded
by the MN Legislative-Citizen Commission
on Minnesota Resources, concluded bioenergy production, together with increasing
population, energy demand and climate
uncertainties, present a great challenge
sustaining future water supplies.
Minnesota will face increased demand
for useable and accessible groundwater,
as population and water use increase.
Minnesota’s groundwater supply is not
always located where it is needed. Surface
waters are under threat from aging individual
private septic tanks. Key challenges include:
Impaired Waters Geographically
concentrated is the location of impaired
waters (do not meet water quality standards).
Greater than 80% of the EPA-defined
impaired water is located in the rural areas
of the state. If misused, these waters could
negatively affect the food grown there,
recreation, and tourism. Impaired surface
waters included 4,100 listings in 2014.
Improving Water Monitoring Minnesota
must reinstate efforts of condition
monitoring to develop an understanding
of the current conditions of groundwater.
New technology may allow an economical
way to collect and analyze a large amount
of important data. In situation realtime monitoring with data transmission
capabilities would allow a statewide network
to quickly identify and report problems that
could receive more scrutiny.
Reducing Phosphorus Levels in
Waterways While attention has been
centered on lowering phosphorus levels,
results remain elusive. There has been
a coordinated plan between the federal
Environmental Protection Agency and the
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to
reduce phosphorus levels in the Minnesota
River by 40%, a goal difficult to obtain due
to the proliferation of phosphorus coming
from nonpoint sources. As the primary
nutrient pollutant affecting Minnesota,
phosphorus from both point and nonpoint
sources will continue to be a major battle
line. A similar challenge, Nitrates at high
levels are problematic, increasing, costly to
remediate, and we do not have under control.
Phosphorus Treatment and Removal
Technologies The Chemical Treatment
Process at the wastewater treatment stage
creates a balance between added chemicals
and phosphorus, and results in a sludge
containing phosphorus that must be properly
disposed. This process is the least expensive
way to remove phosphorus at the wastewater
treatment stage. Advanced technologies at
the treatment stage and those that recover
phosphorus for value-added reuse will be
necessary, coupled with technologies that
cost effectively decrease phosphorus from
entering the water system.
Bio-fuels - A Water and Energy Intensive
Process With new bioenergy policies aiming
to reduce fossil fuel dependency, Minnesota
has become a top-five bioethanol producer
in the United States. In 2010, there were 19
bio-fuel production facilities in Minnesota
operating using a lot of water. Ethanol plants
often use four to five gallons of water for
each gallon of ethanol produced. In 2006,
Minnesota drivers pumped 236 million
gallons of bio-fuels mixed with gasoline,
resulting in between .944B and 1.18B
gallons of water used in bio-fuel production.
Also, corn production is an energy- and
water-intensive process and directly affects
water quality due to more fertilizer being
used. Utilizing native plant feed stocks and
next-generation conversion technologies can
significantly minimize the needs for water
and fertilizers, releasing over 5 times more
energy than what was used to produce it.
Aging Infrastructure and Leaky Private
Septic Tanks About 450,000 homes, 75,000
cabins and 10,000 businesses and resorts
rely upon individual onsite sewage treatment
systems. Over 64,000 of these systems are
estimated to be nonfunctioning, discharging
to ground and surface water, and released
into nearby ditches, streams or lakes.
Failing to resolve this problem will increase
harmful impacts to waterways within and
out of Minnesota, causing adverse affects on
recreation, tourism, and public health.
Infrastructure Applying decentralized
stormwater management practices – green
roofs, trees, rain gardens, permeable
pavement, floating islands – to capture
and infiltrate rain and reduce runoff and
non-point source pollution. More active
technology to recover rainwater for
beneficial use, such as is deployed at the MN
Twins and St. Paul Saints baseball fields and
UofMn football stadium, can significantly
reduce groundwater use. These practices
deliver multiple ecological, economic and
social benefits, and positively impact energy
consumption, air quality, carbon reduction
and sequestration, and provide communities
flexibility to adapt infrastructure to a
changing climate.
Integrating Water Treatment Process
Technology customizing technologies and
combining multiple processes to solve the
most challenging water quality problems
and deliver solutions based on localized
conditions and capabilities. This includes
integrating less energy-intensive and more
energy-efficient technologies.
Minnesota’s water technology companies,
both large and small, are leaders in
delivering drinking water and wastewater
treatment solutions at home and abroad.
The state’s water sector was strong long
before the present surge in attention to
growing regional water scarcity challenges
and anticipated future demands on finite
fresh water sources. Minnesota companies
have and are developing a range of
water and associated technologies, from
established and widely used, to embryonic
– technologies under development
demonstrated overseas but not established
in North America – and innovative being
demonstrated commercially to a limited
degree. Innovation, along with the depth
and strength of technological expertise
in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest,
represents a competitive advantage in
terms of export markets, but also creates an
opportunity to further develop and promote
this unique economic cluster to the world.
A Great Lakes Commission Report 2011
indicates the nature and extent of the
mercury problem is more severe than
previously known and appears to be
getting worse. Heritage and economic
value are lost when the consequences of
ecological degradation hit home.
Key Niche Markets in Minnesota
•
Water Conservation/Efficiency
•
Groundwater Contamination/
Monitoring Real-time Groundwater
Sensor Systems
•
•
•
Where to Find Solutions
Greater pressure on resource systems
together with increased environmental risks
present a new set of leadership challenges
for both private and public institutions.
One important action area to better address
our water and other environmental issues
is to accelerate adoption of advanced
water technologies. Water optimization,
conservation, and recovery methods and
technologies will be essential to using water
resources wisely. It will also be necessary
to more comprehensively address nonpoint source pollution, price water correctly
to meet infrastructure needs and protect
ecological services, and align our water,
land-use, and energy policies as a new
framework for sustainability.
•
•
Septic System Replacements and
Distributed Wastewater Treatment
Reducing Ag Nitrogen & Phosphate
Loss
Water-efficient Electricity Generation
Efficient Bio-fuel Manufacturing
Processes
Biosolids recovery (sewage sludge)
nutrient-rich organic materials resulting
from treatment and processing of
wastewater residuals
Fundamental to finding solutions to these
challenges is gaining a better understanding
of the interconnections between water,
energy, land-use, food production, and
climate change, and how we might harness
synergies. This will take a collaborative
effort across public and private sectors,
progressive policy, effective leadership, and
true innovation to overcome the status quo.
27
German Water And Wastewater Technology –
In Use All Over The World
Peter Gebhart, VDMA
Solutions “made in Germany” for
global challenges
to grow. German suppliers are popular
suppliers of water and wastewater
The water topic in all its facets is a
position due to their long-standing solution
finding expertise. Whether mechanical,
of exports. Compared to last year, exports
global issue. This becomes particularly
apparent if you take a look at the agendas
of international trade fairs. Industrial
water management was the focus topic of
ACHEMA 2015, the leading exhibition for
the process industry. In 2016, water and
wastewater management will be a central
exhibition topic at IFAT which is the leading
trade fair for environmental technologies.
partners and have reached their world market
rose to a total of about EUR 950 million
(2014) compared to about 945 million
physical, chemical, or biological treatment
(2013).
of drinking, process and waste water – the
solutions are invariably closely geared to
In the ranking of the world’s strongest export
the needs of the customers and the specific
markets, China leads with EUR 90.5 million
demands set by the actual location.
(plus 30.4 percent), followed by France with
German exports 2014
EUR 69.8 million (plus 13.1 percent) and
The German manufacturers of components
million.
Russia (formerly in the lead) with EUR 69.5
and systems for water treatment, waste
More than ever, future water and wastewater
water and sludge treatment recorded a
The EU-28 still remains the foremost
customer specifications in order to provide
2014 even though market conditions were
of water and wastewater engineering. The
engineering development must be tailored to
slight increase of 0.5 percent in exports in
importing region for German manufacturers
technically and economically optimal
difficult.
exports to these countries rose by a total
Despite the drastic decline in exports
EUR 196 million, the Asian market also
solutions across the entire life cycle of
machinery and equipment. The optimization
of the cleaning process will only be one
focus of innovation. Another major point
will be the further use of energy and contents
of wastewater or the ingredients contained
therein.
What is therefore growing in importance
is a combination of innovative processing
techniques with modern process control
systems, intelligent online measuring and
monitoring procedures with real-time
controls and a continuous central data
and sludge treatment is large and continues
had a major export share (plus 8.7 percent),
German Exports by Region 2014
Rest of World
Africa
6%
3%
Middle East
7%
North America
6%
EU-28
42%
Other European Countries
15%
Asia
21%
The worldwide demand for components and
systems for water treatment and wastewater
of 7.6 percent to EUR 399 million. With
to Russia by about 35 percent, German
acquisition of all process states.
28
technology were able to maintain high level
Total export volume: 950.34 € million
Source: Federal Statistical Office / VDMA
(item number 842121)
other European countries reached EUR 147
million (down 22.4 percent) and the Middle
East EUR 71 million (plus 22.5 percent).
The 10 Most Important Export Markets
German water and wastewater technology (in 1,000 EUR)
Thus, this region has surpassed the North
American region with its export share, as
the former experienced a decline in exports
(EUR 53 million, down 14.2 percent).
VDMA Water and Wastewater
Technology Group
The range of products and services offered
by members of the Technology Group
ensures a sustainable use of water resources
adapted to the needs of the 21st century. For
this, efficient solutions are needed for both
water treatment and wastewater and sludge
treatment since the requirements for quantity
and quality of drinking water, service water
and process water are steadily rising.
More than a hundred years of experience
tasks such as fully automated drilling, deep
Technology Group also has a new internet
Germany very strong in this segment. Here
water treatment, or even more complex
www.waterwastewatertechnology.info. Here
and are well-known for delivering world
and suppliers for operators of municipal and
was traditionally dominated by Anglo-
and sludge treatment facilities. A detailed
German VDMA member companies offer an
sea technologies or sustainable drilling
The VDMA Water and Wastewater
in the downstream industry has made
service platform at
German companies are active worldwide
customers will find the right manufacturers
class solutions. The upstream segment
industrial water and wastewater treatment
Americans. But even here numerous
listing of manufacturers/product directory is
increasing amount of technology for difficult
applications such as handling oil sands, tight
oil, sour and aggressive gases, shale oil and
gas or coal bed gas.
End customers are not often aware when
they buy a “made in USA” package that this
solution already contains a lot of “Made
the central element of the bilingual customer
portal (German / English). A media library
with publications and further information
complete the extensive range of services.
Filtration and Water Treatment “Made
in Germany” for US Oil & Gas Industry
Water treatment and filtration are major
issues in the US oil, gas, and petrochemical
industry. High technology solutions
guaranteeing health and safety as well as
environmental standards are essential both in
upstream, with produced water treatment and
handling, and in various steps of downstream
Contact
VDMA
Process Plant and Equipment
Peter Gebhart
Recooling Technology
Water and Wastewater Technology
Lyoner Straße 18
60528 Frankfurt
Germany
Tel.: +49 69 6603-1468
Fax: +49 69 6603-2468
Email: peter.gebhart@vdma.org
URL: http://vtma.vdma.org
processing.
29
in Germany” technology. Regardless,
the trend will continue exactly in this
Product Directory “German Process
Engineering”
engaged in developing ever more reliable,
Member companies of the Process Plant
It is, indeed, the only way to attain two
who are active in the areas of water and
environmentally safely and as a result
petrochemicals can be found in the new
she will also enjoy economic advantages.
Engineering.” They are listed with their
direction, since all VDMA members are
energy-efficient, and sustainable solutions.
and Equipment Association within VDMA
benefits: The customer will operate more
wastewater engineering or oil / gas /
enhance his or her reputation, and he or
edition of the buyers guide “German Process
Reliability of equipment is, next to custom-
product range.
tailored and durable solutions, a traditional
virtue of German manufacturers.
In addition, the entries appear in the VDMA
product database at
www.vdma-products.com - Process Plant
and Equipment.
Lining solutions
for a future life
Your system supplier for the trenchless
rehabilitation of sewer and
potable water pipes. Worldwide.
30
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The German Water Sector: Secure Water Supply,
Wastewater Collection and Treatment
The German water industry takes
particularly good care of 12 percent of the
surface of the country because there are
more than 17,000 water protection areas,
from which primarily drinking water is used.
Germany is in a good position – 365 days
per year, drinking water of the highest
quality and purity is available. We owe this
to a wise management of water resources,
optimal and sophisticated technologies in
water and plant engineering, and a very good
state of our networks.
Germany has abundant water resources: 64
percent of the drinking water is extracted
from groundwater, and 27 percent from
surface water, which is collected in
reservoirs, lakes or ponds. Dams are an
integral part of the drinking water supply
and energy production; Germany has 311
dams. 9 percent of drinking water is directly
taken from springs.
In a European comparison, German
water suppliers ranked highly: 99 percent
of the population is connected to the
public drinking water supply, whose
figures for water losses are the lowest.
In an international comparison, German
standards satisfy the highest demands: The
resource management is sustainable, the
environmental legislation is comprehensive
and effective, the know-how is extensive and
the professionals are well-trained. All these
factors are prerequisites to deliver clean
water in sufficient quantity at any time to
any place.
German water suppliers deliver about 5.4
billion cubic meters of drinking water to
consumers each year. Each German citizen
consumes an average of 125 liters of water
per day. For comparison: 164 liters per day
are consumed in France, 168 liters per day
in England and Wales and almost 300 liters
of drinking water per citizen per day are
consumed in the U.S. and Japan.
Germany also has a well-functioning
drinking water supply network. For
maintenance purposes only, German water
suppliers invest around € 1.5 billion
annually, an investment which is financed
with about 2 percent of its per capita income.
These supply networks are aging, and tend
to be fragile and leak. However, on average,
only about 8 percent of water is lost in
Germany – a figure placing Germany among
the best not just in Europe, but throughout
the world.
be treated. The length of the German public
sewerage pipe system totals 515.000 km.
Mixed water channels account for about
46 percent of this figure, while wastewater
channels account for about 33 percent of the
network. The remaining 21 percent is rain
water channels.
Sustainable water management also requires
effective sewage treatment, another realm
where Germany also sets the bar. Nearly
the entire amount of wastewater is treated
according to the highest EU standards.
In large- and small-sized wastewater
treatment plants, sewage sludge remains
after mechanical, biological and chemical
Hamburg Wasser, wastewater treatment plant
In order to minimize these processes,
underground drinking water supply networks
are monitored regularly and then maintained
and / or repaired with the help of the latest
technologies.
purification steps, about 2.3 million metric
tons annually. Uncontaminated sludge can
be used as fertilizer in agriculture. The
vast majority, however, is used for heat
generation.
The water available for use as drinking water
may be cloudy, and may contain pollutants
or too much iron and manganese. For the
treatment of these waters, German water
suppliers utilize sophisticated technologies,
including various physical and chemical
processes, such as filtration, oxidation,
sedimentation and disinfection.
The entire German water sector, including
drinking and wastewater, employs more than
100,000 people – more employees than in
the automobile industry.
Where fresh water is used, wastewater must
Contact
German Water Partnership e.V.
www.germanwaterpartnership.de
31
Country Special: CANADA
- The Canadian Water Sector
Anna-Lena Gruenagel, Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce Inc.
With an area of nearly ten million square
kilometers, Canada is the second largest
country in the world after Russia, and almost
as large as Europe. The country shares just
two land borders, one in the South and
one to the Northwest (Alaska), both with
the United States. The rest of Canada is
surrounded by water: the Pacific Ocean to
the West, the Arctic Ocean to the North, and
the Atlantic Ocean to the East. Moreover,
Canada has the world’s longest coastline,
stretching over 243,000 kilometers. The
provinces of British Columbia, Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec,
New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island,
Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova
Scotia divide the Southern part of Canada
from west to east into ten provinces. The
North is divided into three territories:
Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, and
Nunavut.
Canada contains 7% of the world’s fresh
water resources and 14% of the country is
covered by water. Canada is furthermore
one of the most resource-rich countries in
the world and has the largest natural water
resources worldwide. The country’s water
use is steadily increasing and is already
well above the average when compared
to other OECD-countries. This high
rate of consumption can be attributed to
historically low energy and water prices
which have resulted in a lack of awareness
amongst the general public and energy- and
water-intensive industries, including the raw
material, paper, iron and steel, chemicals
and aluminum industries. The average water
use per inhabitant is 251 liters per day (in
2011). Due to a projected population growth
rate of approximately 20% by 2050, the
demand can be expected to continue rising
The Greenway Pollution Control Plant hosts the Southern Ontario Water Consortium’s wastewaster facility. It creates capacity for
compliance testing and demonstration of technologies that is unprecedented, enabling access to full-scale municipal flows from
1000 m3/day up to 4500 m3/day. | Picture Credits: Southern Ontario Water Consortium
32
in the future. Both the modernization of
wastewater treatment plants and increasing
efficiency have therefore become high
priorities for the government in recent
years.
This is also reflected in recent regulations
and funding programs at the federal
level. The 1985 Canada Water Act, a
general act for coordination between the
provincial and federal levels with regard
to the management of water resources in
Canada, as well as the Wastewater System
Effluent Regulations announced on July 12,
2012, have renewed national standards for
Canada’s wastewater treatment systems.
Additional requirements for monitoring,
record-keeping, reporting, and toxicity
testing have long been established under
the federal Fisheries Act. Beside federal
regulations, all Canadian provinces have
their own regulations and programs
to support the sector. The province of
Alberta, for example, has introduced a
“Water for Life” strategy which supports
diverse projects selected for the Water
Resource Sustainability Program with 10
million CAD in funding. Ontario, as one
of the most progressive provinces when
it comes to the support of environmental
technologies, has several acts including the
Clean Water Act and the Water Resources
Act to protect drinking water and regulate
sewage water disposal.
A second challenge for Canada besides the
many different regulations and programs
is the size of the country. Dirk Ruppert,
National Business Development Manager
of KSB Pumps and head of the North
American Region for German Water
Partnership comments, “The expanse of the
country is the greatest challenge but also the
greatest opportunity. The business model of
the water and wastewater treatment markets,
primarily for those at the municipal level, is
closely dependent on personal connections
as well as cooperation with local engineers
and decision makers. In this way, Canada
does not differ strongly from many other
countries; however, the geographic distances
across the country are immense.”
Despite the country’s immense size, Canada
has well-developed sector organizations
and associations which provide industry
support across all three time zones. These
organizations across the country work
Picture Credits: Shutterstock
closely together in order to advance the
sector. On the federal level, the Canadian
billion liters of untreated and undertreated
Municipal Water Consortium works closely
wastewater are dumped into the Canadian
with municipalities, industry, government,
waterways every year. KSB Pumps
and research teams to address municipal
water management challenges. The Canadian applauds the efforts of the government on
all levels: “The Canadian market for water
Water Network is an organization that
and wastewater treatment continues to
connects researchers and industry decision
grow even further and the need to update
makers in the water sector across Canada.
facilities is substantial. Not only the federal
Many initiatives can also be found on the
government in Ottawa but also the provincial
provincial level such as WaterTAP Ontario,
governments are making great efforts to
a water technology acceleration project
improve water pollution control while at the
that promotes close cooperation between
same time optimizing energy efficiency in
Ontario’s public and private water industry
institutions and businesses. Dr. Peter Gallant, municipal facilities.”
President and CEO of WaterTAP states,
The new regulations defined in the
“Ontario is home to more than 900 waterWastewater System Effluent Regulations
related companies. Mature technology
will require communities to substantially
clusters include membranes, ultraviolet
upgrade about one in every four wastewater
disinfection, and pipe inspection and
treatment systems across the country
rehabilitation. Clusters with high growth
over the next three decades. Based on
potential include resource recovery and
conservative estimates, future capital
reuse, stormwater management, and smart
expenditures will be in excess of 18 billion
systems that incorporate monitoring, sensors,
CAD. These costs challenge municipalities
and big data. WaterTAP’s mandate is to
to defer other local infrastructure priorities
increase adoption of these technologies in
that are similarly critical to sustained
global market. At more than $560 billion, the
economic growth and job creation, but
market presents an incredible opportunity—
also offer municipalities a chance to
and Ontario has the expertise to address
open up for new partnerships and drive
many of the world’s water challenges.”
innovation. Currently, the 15 billion CAD
annually invested into water projects by
Canada’s biggest challenge for the coming
municipalities is complemented significantly
years will be modernizing its more than
3,500 wastewater treatment plants. Over 150 by both the federal Gas Tax Fund and the
application-based New Building Canada
Fund. Moving forward, municipalities are
expected to look to partner with the federal
government for a new, dedicated fund in
order to assist communities in complying
with new regulations.
This development in the Canadian water
and wastewater sector offers significant
economic opportunity and potential for
foreign companies to enter the market in the
next years. “Canada has the potential to be
a global leader in water management, and
that includes drinking water, wastewater,
stormwater and urban watersheds,” says
Bernadette Conant, CEO of Canadian Water
Network.
Contact
Canadian German Chamber
of Industry and Commerce Inc.
Anna-Lena Gruenagel
Senior Manager Business Development
410, rue St. Nicolas, Bureau 200
Montréal, QC, H2Y 2P5
Canada
T +1 (514) 844-3051
F +1 (514) 844-1473
anna-lena.gruenagel@germanchamber.ca
www.germanchamber.ca
33
Online Water Monitoring Prevents Deposits,
Saving Facilities Thousands
Tilman Heyl, CEO, Heyl Brothers North America
Water quality monitoring is a crucial element
of energy cost savings at any facility that
utilizes boilers. Recent research has shown
that better control of parameters such as
water hardness, carbonate hardness, and
conductivity through online water quality
monitoring can save facilities thousands
of dollars annually in energy and potential
downtime costs. Water quality monitoring
can also greatly increase the functional life
of boilers, allowing for significant savings
on capital equipment and investment.
According to the US Geological Survey,
most regions in the United States are
affected by hard water. The Great Lakes
region, Alaska, Tennessee and parts of the
Pacific Northwest endure moderately hard
water, while the highest hard water levels in
the US can be found in Texas, New Mexico,
Kansas, Arizona and southern California.
However, hard or very hard water has been
identified to some degree in water sources
throughout all regions of the country.
Calcium salts contained in hard water
become soluble when heated inside a boiler
feed or condensate water stream. When
calcium salts become soluble, they attach
to the surface of metals that they come into
contact with, forming a milky-colored, solid
layer. By this process, limescale builds up
on the inside surfaces of the pipes and other
metal parts of a boiler, as well as its feed and
condensate water streams. In addition, the
likelihood of limescale forming increases
significantly with rising temperatures.
This means that virtually any facility in the
US is vulnerable to incurring extra energy
costs due to the negative effects of hard
water, including the formation of limescale
in boilers. Given the high rates of water
hardness in most parts of the US and the
need for cost-reduction efforts across all
industries, regulating and monitoring CaCO3
levels has become a crucial process.
In addition to build-up from calcium salt
limescale, deposits on heat transfer surfaces
can also be caused by silicates, sulfate and
calcium phosphate present in boiler feed
water, resulting in additional costs and
energy loss. Specifically, the presence of
Dow Chemical: Ultra-pure water plant for chemical industry with water hardness monitoring device | Pictures from (C) Frei AquaService AG, Aesch, Switzerland
34
Ultra-pure water plant for pharmaceutical industry with water hardness monitoring device | Picture from (C) Frei AquaService AG, Aesch, Switzerland
an excessive amount of any one of these
substances in boiler feed water can lead to
costs of up to approximately $22,000 per
year, depending on the size of the boiler.
When these factors combine to form scale
build-ups, the costs due to energy loss,
de-scaling operations, and further potential
damage to the boiler and related equipment
can be astronomical.
In addition to a labor gap, three more large
challenges that utilities and industrial
plants with potable water cycles face are
environmental standards & awareness,
energy costs, and a lack of process
automation. A tried-and-true solution that
has been implemented in Germany to face
these challenges is automated water quality
analysis.
The need to innovatively combat this risk
of high-cost limescale deposits is therefore
apparent. However, innovations in the water
sector do not come easily and face a number
of challenges. According to a 2014 study
by Black & Veatch, challenges in the US
water sector are not only dominated by an
aging infrastructure and lack of financing.
Information technology and an aging
workforce have also been identified as key
challenges for future developments.
Currently, most facilities which monitor their
water quality do so manually with test kits.
In such cases, a water sample is taken by an
employee, who then adds an indicator. Water
hardness or other parameters are determined
by how much indicator must be added before
the sample changes color. However, manual
water can also be inaccurate, typically
requiring that tests be frequently performed
to ensure constant water quality monitoring-thereby adding to already high labor costs.
The water sector is perceived as a
comparatively unattractive employer for
the new generation of workers. With the
current workforce aging rapidly, a labor gap
needs to be filled. Automation technologies,
which decrease the need for highly trained
workers, provide a solution to this gap, and
are becoming more sought after, fueling
investments in information technology and
process automation.
A more accurate and integrated option is
the fully automated monitoring of potable
water cycles. For this method, a monitoring
instrument is placed in the water cycle
wherever measurements need to be taken.
These instruments communicate via
standard industrial data transfer systems
such as Ethernet, WiFi with external data
management, or SCADA systems, and
can also be connected to control systems
for water softening units to automatically
start the regeneration process should predetermined limit values not be reached.
Fully automated water quality analysis has
been implemented in a variety of industries
in Germany and its cost-saving effects
have been successfully demonstrated. Plant
downtimes are an essential cost factor in the
decision to better monitor water quality with
an online analyzer, as plants and facilities
usually have to be shut down when a boiler
needs to be cleaned.
This occurs more frequently if water
hardness has led to increased lime scaling.
Plant operators and facility managers can
significantly lower these costs through
automated monitoring of water hardness.
In addition to the decrease in energy costs
enabled through automated water quality
analysis, compliance with environmental
standards can also be achieved through
the monitoring of parameters such as
phosphorous, bromide, or sulfite.
Faced with increased movement towards
process automation to decrease labor costs
and increase plant efficiency, operators
utilizing automated analysis instrumentation
have taken a vital step in the integration of
multi-step treatment processes of potable
water cycles.
35
Emerging Contaminants Regulations
In The United States
Richard Radcliff, Beam, Longest & Neff
As a result of advancements in analytical
Federal Regulations
As of this article, there have been three
spectrometer coupled to both gas and liquid
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
testing for 77 different chemicals, viruses
MS), environmental scientists have been
the US. EPA has been looking at ECs in
chemistry, such as the tandem mass
chromatographs (GC/MS/MS and LC/MS/
able to detect a wider array of environmental
contaminants at much lower detection limits.
In previous decades, detection limits were
in the parts per million (ppm or mg/L) to
parts per billion (ppb or ug/L) range. New
technologies now enable environmental
scientists to see in the parts per trillion (ppt
or ng/L) levels for some contaminants.
Environmental samples of surface water,
wastewater and even finished drinking
water are now showing the presence of
trace levels of pharmaceuticals and personal
care products such as fragrances, cleaners,
anti-bacterial additives (Triclosan) etc.
Various terms have been used for these
newly discovered contaminants including:
Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products
(PPCPs), Endocrine Disrupting Compounds
(EDCs), and Emerging Contaminants (ECs).
It is probably not accurate to use the term
Endocrine Disrupting Compounds when
speaking of Emerging Contaminants, as
it is unlikely that all ECs are EDCs. The
large number of different contaminants
that may be present in an environmental
sample coupled with a lack of understanding
regarding their specific health effects, has
hindered the regulation of ECs. This paper
will focus on EC regulatory efforts in the
United States and will propose a solution to
address regulation of tens of thousands of
contaminants.
36
is responsible for regulating pollutants in
potable water since the 1996 amendments
to the Safe Drinking Water Act. These
amendments require EPA to monitor for not
more than 30 contaminants every 5 years
and to make a regulatory determination on
at least 5 contaminants every 5 years. (1)
To support this regulatory determination,
rounds of UCMR testing. EPA has required
and other microbiological contaminants. To
date, only Perchlorate (3) and Strontium
(4) have been determined to meet the
requirements for regulation. Regulations are
under development for these contaminants.
In addition, certain states have regulated
select contaminants beyond those regulated
by EPA.
EPA requires representative public water
Endocrine Disruptors and the Water
Quality Bullseye
submit samples under the Unregulated
The history of drinking water regulations in
supplies across the country to collect and
Contaminant Monitoring Rules (UCMR) to
approved drinking water testing laboratories
for analysis. The results are submitted to
EPA to determine if a contaminant “may
have an adverse effect on the health of
persons”; “is known to occur or there is
a substantial likelihood the contaminant
will occur in public water systems with a
frequency and at levels of public health
the United States shows that the definition
of potable or “clean” continues to get
narrower over time. As Figure 1 shows,
each new regulation has had the effect
of adding new contaminants or lowering
the allowable concentration of previously
regulated contaminants, thereby narrowing
the definition of “clean” drinking water.
concern”; or, “In the sole judgement of the
Administrator, regulation of the contaminant
presents a meaningful opportunity for health
risk reductions for persons served by public
water systems.” (2)
Beam, Longest & Neff
126 Castleton Road
Indianapolis, IN 46250
Richard Radcliff
rradcliff@b-l-n.com
Tel.: 317.849.5832
HIT THE WATER QUALITY BULLSEYE
As the bullseye shows, efforts to regulate drinking water quality have been undertaken since 1914, and the definition of “clean” water has gotten narrower as time has progressed.
Development of new analytical technologies has allowed for detection of trace level contaminants at the parts per trillion (ng/L or ppt) level. As our understanding of pollution has
progressed, the range of regulated contaminants has increased greatly. EPA has now developed a list of over 10,000 contaminants that they have included in the Endocrine Disruptor
Screening Program, and has begun actively testing groups of these contaminants for endocrine disrupting activity. Future regulations will likely further narrow the definition of “clean”
drinking water. These developments have come at a time when the need for potable water is beginning to outpace the natural water cycle.
Population increases, climate change and droughts are resulting in water shortages. Water reuse is becoming more important to address water shortage issues. Since water reuse
interrupts the natural water purification process, engineered treatment technologies are needed to mimic and enhance the natural environmental process.
Beam, Longest and Neff’s Water Resources Department continuously follows developments in the Safe Drinking Water Act and understands that new technologies will be needed
to address the more stringent water quality demands that water reuse and future Safe Drinking Water Act regulations will require. BLN’s engineers have been working
on water treatment solutions geared toward meeting these new contaminant issues and are prepared to assist.
ENDOCRINE DISRUPTORS RULE?
1914 US Public Health Service Regulates Coliform Bacteria
1962 US Public Health Service Issues Standards
for 28 Contaminants
2013 BLN Adds Missing Pharmaceuticals,
Pharmaceutical Metabolites, Pesticide
Metabolites, Fragrances, Algal Toxins and
Disinfection Byproducts to EPA's List
1974 Safe Drinking Water Act
1976 National Primary Drinking
Water Regulations
1979 Total Trihalomethanes
Regulated
2013 & Beyond
Rules In Progress Perchlorate, VOCs
1979 Secondary Standards
1986 Fluoride Standard
Revised
2013 Total Coliform
Rule, Revised
1987 - Phase I VOCs
2012 Unregulated
Contaminant
Monitoring Rule
3 (UCMR 3)
1989 Total Coliform
Rule, Revised
November, 2012 EPA
Releases Endocrine
Disruptor Screening
Program Universe
of Chemicals
1989 Surface Water
Treatment Rule
THE
FUTURE
The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program “Universe”
In 2012, EPA released its “Endocrine Disruptor Screening
Program Universe of Chemicals” (5). This list contains over
10,000 items including: Foodstuffs; High production volume
chemicals; Pharmaceuticals; Pesticides, and Fragrances.
While this is a significant step toward defining a starting point, the
list is missing most of the typically prescribed pharmaceuticals,
pharmaceutical metabolites, many pesticide metabolites, algal
toxins and other important contaminants that may be present in
source waters used for drinking water production. The process
needs to be enhanced to efficiently regulate the “Universe” of
possible contaminants.
1991 Phase II VOCs,
SOCs and IOCs
2010 Second List
of Endocrine
Disrupting Chemicals
1991 Lead and Copper
Rule
1992 Phase V - VOCs,
SOCs and IOCs
2009 Initial List
of Endocrine
Disrupting Chemicals
1995 - Nickel is Remanded
2007 Unregulated Contaminant
Monitoring Rule 2 (UCMR 2)
1996 Amendments to Safe
Drinking Water Act
2006 Stage 2 Disinfectant/
Disinfection Byproducts Rule
1996 The Information Collection
Rule (ICR)
2006 Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water
Treatment Rule
2006 Ground Water Rule
1998 Stage I Disinfectant/Disinfection
Byproducts Rule
2002 Long Term 1 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule
2001 Unregulated Contaminant
Monitoring Rule 1 (UCMR 1)
1998 Interim Enhanced Surface Water
Treatment Rule
2001 Filter
Backwash
Recycling
Rule
2001
Arsenic
Revised
2000 Radionuclides
Rule
The Future of Emerging Contaminant
Regulations?
200 prescribed pharmaceuticals each year)
References
To truly regulate the “Universe” of
be more useful than screening for some
of the materials on EPA’s “Universe” list.
1. http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/guidance/
contaminants that may be present in a water
supply, it is suggested that the regulatory
agencies look at the chemical properties
of the substances (octanol water partition
coefficient and Henry’s law constants).
These properties would alert the regulator to
whether the contaminant would partition to
the air/sludge or stay in the water column.
This would eliminate thousands of chemicals
from consideration as potential water
contaminants.
Consideration should also be given to what
contaminants are likely to be present in a
water sample. For example, the body may
not excrete the parent pharmaceutical, but
and what metabolites are excreted would
sdwa/theme.cfm
Finally, selecting individual chemicals that
are representative of a class of contaminants
(such as is done for the Trihalomethanes and
Haloacetic Acids) would greatly reduce the
complexity of testing and regulatory burden.
Universe list and added approximately 4,000
additional pharmaceutical, metabolite and
other contaminants that may be in water.
Chemical properties are under review to
determine their distribution (air, sludge,
water matrix) after treatment. For more
information, please contact the author.
determination-2-contaminants-second-
drinking-water-contaminant-candidate-list
3. http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/
unregulated/perchlorate.cfm
This effort is currently underway by the
author. The author started with EPA’s
2. http://www2.epa.gov/ccl/regulatory-
4. https://www.federalregister.gov/
articles/2014/10/20/2014-24582/
announcement-of-preliminary-regulatorydeterminations-for-contaminants-on-thethird-drinking-water
5. http://www.epa.gov/endo/pubs/
edsp_chemical_universe_and_general_
validations_white_paper_11_12.pdf
rather numerous metabolites. Looking at
what drugs people take regularly (say the top
37
Water And The New Urgency
E. W. Bob Boulware, P.E., MBA
As the planet’s population and industrial
output continues to grow, water scarcity and
water stress will be experienced in more and
more regions of the United States and the
world in general. Conservation can take us
so far but beyond there will be a need for
creative thinking and the development of
alternative sources of water.
It is expected this increase in water demand
will be accompanied by a rapid rise in water
and sewer costs. Exhibit #1 indicates the
rise in water and sewer costs is predicted to
exceed all other costs. Where in previous
years, the cost of water has been a minor
part of an operating budget, looking toward
the future; it will become an important
component to operating costs.
How to anticipate this cost, and developing
plans of action to minimize the impact, will
become the difference between success or
failure of managing future business and
facilities.
Where are we now?
The first step to managing a facilities water
budget is to survey how much water comes
into a facility, how it is used and how it
is disposed of. For combined sewer bills,
the sewer bill is generally based on water
consumption. Unless metered separately,
water used for irrigation includes a charge
for sewage disposal that is not used. A water
audit, much like an energy audit, summarizes
sources and uses and identifies opportunities
for conservation and reuse.
A good first step is to increase the water use
efficiency by reducing waste and phasing
in high efficiency plumbing fixtures and
systems. Typically that will only save
15%-20%, which is a good start but still
leaves you vulnerable to price increases
from cost and increased demand, which will
reduce or eliminate the savings. To really
38
Exhibit #1: Trends in the Consumer Price Index for utilities (general, 1979-2011)
The index is set to 100 for 1982-1984 except for telephone services, where the index is set 100 for 1997.
get ahead of the water and sewer cost issue,
the prudent facility manager should look to
more creative options for water and waste
management.
Some simple options available for
consideration include:
•
•
•
•
Rainwater Collection
Stormwater collection
Air conditioning Condensate reclaim
Greywater Reclaim
Rainwater Collection
Collecting rainwater predates the bible. As
it falls from the sky, it approximates distilled
water, being mostly devoid of minerals and
chemicals. It makes an ideal source of water
for laundries, (where less soap is required),
cooling tower makeup (with limited scale
producing hardness), watering livestock and
pets, and vehicle washing (less soap and
less spotting). Once the infrastructure of
storage and distribution is established, the
water source is free with filter replacement
and normal pump maintenance the only
maintenance required. If brought into an
occupied space the water is required to be
maintained at water quality standards per
ARCSA/ASPE/ANSI 63 /Design Standards
for Rainwater Collection Systems.
Rainwater was provided to supplement
the water supply for Western Virginia
Regional Jail, initially as a means to gain
LEED points. AECOM Engineering,
working with Rain Management Solutions
of Salem Virginia, utilized the 261,000
square roof as their collection surface to
harvest the rain. A siphonic drainage system
conveyed rainwater to four (4) 30,000 gallon
underground cisterns where the water was
filtered and used by the prison laundry.
When the water savings from all the water
conservation measures were totaled, the
savings was nearly 11 million gallons
of water per year, or about 62.4 percent
reduction over the facility’s baseline water
usage. Of these 11 million gallons saved,
nearly 40% was due to the rainwater
harvesting system, which saved nearly 4.3
million gallons per year. With this exemplary
performance, a LEED innovative design
(ID) credit was achieved, making the WFRJ
regional jail the first LEED-certified jail in
Virginia and one of the first in the United
States. This $225,000 project has an
expected 2.5 year payback, or 40% Return
on Investment.
Stormwater Collection
Buffering stormwater runoff is a side
benefit of rainwater collection. Stormwater
collection is a variant of rainwater collection,
the difference being rainwater is generally
considered to be harvested from a roof or
other above ground relatively clean surface;
while stormwater has come in contact with
the ground, sidewalk or parking surface.
Stormwater is not perceived as being quite
as clean as rainwater, but is serviceable for
landscape irrigation, toilet flushing, and area
washdown. The required level of treatment
is dependent upon the intended use. If
brought into an occupied space, the minimal
standards would be compliance with the
ARCSA/ASPE/ANI 63. But for sub surface
irrigation outside, simple filtering can work.
An enhancement to the basic rainwater
collection system would be the inclusion of
stormwater retention in the system design.
Increased development usually means less
pervious surfaces and increased runoff
during a storm. In the case of the Western
Virginia Regional Jail project, rainwater
collection system had the added benefit of
providing less runoff than in predevelopment
conditions, thereby gaining favor with the
local building officials concerned about
sewage plant overflows from their combined
sewer system.
A hybrid version of the two systems uses
rainwater collection as a stormwater
management tool by reserving a volume in
the top part of the rainwater tank equal to
approximately 1” of rainfall on the collection
surface. This volume is allowed to bleed out
of the tank over a designated time depending
on rain event frequency, to be used for
irrigation, groundwater infiltration, or other
use. This technique has been successfully
used to answer flooding and high water table
issues, along with utility reducing imposed
stormwater runoff costs.
Air Conditioning Condensate Reclaim
The small trickle of water coming from a
condensate drain is often overlooked, yet
has potential for significant savings at the
price of some plastic pipe. It is essentially
distilled water, low in dissolved solids, but
likely high in bacteria count and therefore
needing to be treated with appropriate
caution. Aerosols created from spraying have
the potential to introduce bacteria such as
Legionella into the occupant breathing zone.
Contained distribution, such as cooling
tower makeup is acceptable, but applications
such as above ground spray irrigation are to
be done with caution. However, depending
upon the site location, significant amounts of
water can be obtained from what normally
would be discarded to a floor drain.
Grey Water
Rainwater Storage tank showing metered rainwater discharge
available for irrigation (North Carolina State University Photo)
While often requiring the greater investment
and system complexity, these options
potentially have the greater payback. Unlike
rainwater and stormwater usage that must
rely on the vagaries of weather, greywater
production is more predictable. Greywater
systems re-use water from lavatories,
showers and laundries primarily for toilet
flushing but also can be used for irrigation
and process makeup water. The end result
is that, after being filtered, disinfected
and stored for use, greywater reuse can
save approximately 50% of water being
consumed with a payback commonly in the
3-5 year range. For the accountants, that is a
Return on Investment between 20%-33%.
The design of a greywater system begins
with a water audit. The audit is used to
balance the sources and uses of greywater.
For a successful design, the amount of
greywater harvested should be ideally be
used within 24 hours to avoid the water
going septic, causing odors and potential
health issues.
El Paso Prison improves its prisons self
sufficiency by using the greywater produced
to water the garden.
The logical extreme to these examples can
be seen in the Bullet Center, a net zero water
building newly built in Seattle Washington.
This building uses rainwater as its principal
source of water, recycles greywater from
lavatories and showers for irrigation and
groundwater replenishment. Waste is
processed using composting toilets, where
the compost and urine byproduct becomes a
profit center. All these technologies show the
possibility of being totally sustainable and
if necessary, totally off grid in their building
operation.
Conclusion
Resources such as energy and water,
previously seen as limitless, now appear
less so. Energy conservation is currently the
norm. No right-thinking facility manager
would claim that energy conservation is
not top priority in running a facility. The
new realities now include water as another
limited resource a facility manager must be
prepared to manage.
Adjusting a thermostat and turning off lights
can be a simple answer to conserve energy.
But there is no alternative if one runs out
of water. Managing water is the next new
imperative. Being prepared will separate
successful facility managers from those
that failed to see the new reality of water
shortage.
For more information:
www.DAEngineering.com
39
Promoting Innovation Through The Assessment
Of Changes In Fresh Water Ecosystem Services:
The DESSIN ESS Evaluation Framework
Gerardo Anzaldua, Ecologic Institute; Nadine Vanessa Gerner, Emschergenossenschaft; Sarah Beyer,
Ecologic Institute; Manuel Lago, Ecologic Institute; Issa Nafo, Emschergenossenschaft; Sebastian
Birk, University of Duisburg-Essen
While new solutions and advancements
in technology are necessary to meet the
water quality and scarcity challenges faced
in Europe, these are typically confronted
with barriers to their implementation. By
enabling assessments that consider broad
environmental and economic aspects when
evaluating the costs and benefits of investing
in novel solutions, these barriers can be
overcome.
The European water research project
DESSIN demonstrates and promotes
innovative solutions for water scarcity
and water quality related challenges for
the implementation of the European Water
Framework Directive (WFD). The overall
aim of the project is to demonstrate how
innovative solutions in the water cycle can
enhance the services provided by freshwater
ecosystems and therefore increase the
benefits and attached values that are derived
from them. The applied framework and key
contribution of DESSIN, the DESSIN ESS
Evaluation Framework, uses an integrated
methodology for the evaluation of changes
in ecosystem services (ESS).
Foundations and components of the
DESSIN ESS Evaluation Framework
The DESSIN ESS Evaluation Framework
was developed on the basis of the Common
International Classification of Ecosystem
Services (CICES) and the DPSIR adaptive
management cycle. The former is a
standardized system for the classification
of ESS developed by the European
Union to enhance the consistency and
comparability of ESS assessments. The
latter is a well-known concept to disentangle
the biophysical and social aspects of a
system under study. As part of its analytical
component, the DESSIN framework also
integrates elements of the Final Ecosystem
Goods and Services-Classification System
(FEGS-CS) of the US Environmental
Protection Agency (USEPA). Furthermore,
the framework will be accompanied by a
sustainability assessment module which will
help to ensure a holistic perspective for the
evaluation (Figure 1).
20 partners from 7 countries comprising
universities, research institutes, and site
operators as well as small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) are working together in
this 4 year project (2014 – 2017), funded
through the European Union’s Seventh
Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013).
Figure 2: Conceptual approach of the DESSIN ESS Evaluation
Framework (based on Müller and Burkhard, 2012, Van
Oudenhoven et al., 2012 and Haines-Young and Potschin,
2010; 2013).
Figure 1: Components and foundations of the DESSIN ESS
Evaluation Framework
40
In the DPSIR scheme as applied in DESSIN,
the innovative technologies to be tested
within the project are considered Responses
that may have influence on Drivers
(anthropogenic activities with environmental
effects), Pressures (the direct effects of
such activities) and States (the conditions
of the ecosystems under study). From the
resulting changes in ecosystem state, the
changes in ESS (Impact I) will be estimated.
An economic assessment of the subsequent
changes in the benefits as perceived by
society and in the value of the services
derived from ecosystems (Impact II) will
follow. Finally, this estimated change in the
level of human well-being will inform policy
and decision-making (further Responses).
Figure 2 outlines the DPSIR scheme as
applied in DESSIN.
Application of the DESSIN ESS
Evaluation Framework
Through the development and application
of the ESS Evaluation Framework, DESSIN
seeks to provide a means to estimate and
promote the potential impact of innovative
technologies on freshwater ESS. The
framework testing and validation will take
place until the end of 2015 in three mature
case study sites: Emscher River (Germany),
Aarhus River (Denmark), and Llobregat
Delta (Spain) (Figure 3). In all these sites,
innovative solutions have been implemented
in the past and a good amount of data has
been recorded, making it possible to test
the methods proposed by DESSIN. Here,
tourism & recreation) and Pressures (e.g.
point and diffuse sources of wastewater,
physical alteration for flood protection,
hydrological alteration, introduced
species and diseases). This is resulting in
modifications in the hydromorphology,
physicochemistry and biology of the
river (i.e. an altered State) which is
subsequently linked to an enhancement
of regulatory ESS like water purification,
flood protection, climate regulation and
biodiversity preservation as well as an
enhancement of cultural ESS such as local
recreational opportunities and experience
of nature in urban areas (the Impact). The
changes in ESS resulting from the Emscher
re-conversion activities are now being
appraised quantitatively using biophysical
indicators and economic valuation methods.
control of large scale systems, sewer mining
and storage of freshwater in aquifers as well
as monitoring, modeling and management
approaches.
Example: The Emscher River mature
case study
Over a century ago, the region surrounding
the Emscher River in Germany was
transformed into an industrial conurbation
centered around the coal and steel industries.
The Emscher and its tributaries were turned
into a man-made system of open wastewater
channels. With the decline of mining, a
decision to start re-converting the river and
its tributaries into near-natural waterways
was met and started being applied around
Outlook
Using the DESSIN ESS Evaluation
Framework facilitates the delineation
and assessment of changes in ESS that
result from the implementation of water
management innovations in the examined
ecosystems. This enables a more informed
selection of the most promising solutions
for water management that takes into
consideration impacts on the water body
as well as wider economic implications.
To evaluate the impact of a proposed or
implemented water technology and to
quasi-objectively compare among different
potential solutions, the DESSIN ESS
Evaluation Framework will be integrated
into a Decision Support System. This will
provide decision-makers with a practical
way to integrate valuable, wide-ranging
Figure 3: Mature sites of DESSIN
changes in the value of ESS before and after
the interventions are being calculated.
Once the testing phase at the mature
sites is finalized by the end of 2015, the
validated methodology will be applied to
five demonstration sites around Europe
where new innovations are undergoing
implementation: Athens (Greece), Emscher
(Germany), Hoffselva (Norway), Llobregat
(Spain), Westland (Netherlands). The
demonstration sites in Germany and
Norway focus on water quality issues,
while those in the Netherlands, Greece and
Spain focus water scarcity. The solutions
include technological approaches, such as
decentralized water treatment units, real time
two decades ago. The first application of the
DESSIN ESS Evaluation Framework shows
that the Emscher re-conversion affects a high
number of Drivers (e.g. urban development,
climate change, flood protection, industry,
State
Pressures
Responses
Emscher
Re-conversion:
- creation of
sewer network
incl. CSOs
- waste-water
free streams
- ecological
restoration
Drivers
Urban
development
Climate change
Flood protection
Industry
Tourism &
recreation
Point sources:
- Urban wastewater
- Industrial wastewater
Hydromorphology:
-
Diffuse sources:
- Urban run-off
- Atmospheric deposition
Physical alteration for flood
protection
Hydrological alteration
Introduced species and
diseases
Quantity + dynamics of water flow
Water residence time
Depth and width
Structure and substrate of the
water bed
Physicochemistry:
-
Transparency
Thermal conditions
Oxygenation conditions
Salinity
Nutrients
Hazardous substances
Impact I
Water purification
Impact II
Flood protection
Avoided costs for
water treatment
Surface water provision
Ecosystem stability
Biodiversity preservation
Avoided restoration
costs
Nutrient retention
Climate regulation
Cultural services
Real estates,
Willingness-to-pay for
recreation
Biological:
- Macrophytes + Phytobenthos
- Benthic invertebrates
Figure 4: DPSIR analysis of the Emscher re-conversion
41
Press
information into the decision-making
process.
First results and conclusions from the mature
case studies, including quantification of
biophysical changes and economic benefits,
will be available in late 2015.
Further information as well as precise case
study descriptions can be found under:
https://dessin-project.eu/.
Acknowledgements
The research leading to these results has
received funding from the European Union’s
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/20072013) under grant agreement no. 619039.
Partners
IWW Water Centre (Project Coordinator),
Adelphi, Amphos21, Bruine de Bruin,
CETaqua, Chemitec, DHI, Ecologic Institute
gGmbH, Emschergenossenschaft, EYDAP,
Inrigo Water, KWR Water B.V., Leif Kølner
Ingeniørfirma A/S, National Technical
University of Athens, Oslo Kommune
VAV, SEGNO Industrie Automation
GmbH, Stiftelsen SINTEF, TELINT RTD
Consultancy Services LTD, UFT Umweltund Fluid-Technik, University of DuisburgEssen.
References
Haines-Young, R., and Potschin, M., 2010.
The links between biodiversity, ecosystem
services and human well-being. In: Raffaelli,
D., Frid, C. (Eds.), Ecosystem Ecology: A
New Synthesis. BES Ecological Reviews
Series. CUP, Cambridge, pp. 110–139.
Framework Contract No EEA. Contract No
EEA/IEA/09/003.
Müller, F., Burkhard, B., 2012. The indicator
side of ecosystem services. Ecosyst. Serv. 1,
26–30. doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2012.06.001
Van Oudenhoven, A.P.E., Petz, K.,
Alkemade, R., Hein, L., de Groot,
R.S., 2012. Framework for systematic
indicator selection to assess effects of
land management on ecosystem services.
Ecol. Indic., Challenges of sustaining
natural capital and ecosystem services
Quantification, modelling & valuation/
accounting 21, 110–122. doi:10.1016/j.
ecolind.2012.01.012
Haines-Young, R., and Potschin, M., 2013.
Common International Classification of
Ecosystem Services (CICES): Consultation
on Version 4, August–December 2012. EEA
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State Of The Art Sewage Sludge Handling,
Drying, And Incineration
The utilization of sewage sludge and
similar waste sludge has been in intense
discussion for many years. Besides objective
information, emotions often play a role in
shaping this discussion.
The agricultural exploitation and the usage
of sludge for recultivation of soil will be
strongly reduced due to new legislation.
This will tighten environmental limits and
greatly reduce or fully forbid the landfilling
of dried sludge wastes. As a result of this
development, the disposal by incineration
and the energetic usage of the wastes until
they reach inert status will prove to be a
simple solution to this complex problem.
The end product which remains after
dewatering the sewage sludge may
be utilized in many different ways. It
is indefinitely storable and requires
significantly less transportation and storage
volume. It may also be used as common
fuel in cement factories, power plants, and
diverse industrial incineration facilities.
There are many different drying technologies
and systems which have been attempted
with varying degree of success. Due to the
high requirements of technology used in
the drying process, only very few systems
have proven to be consistent, long term, and
economically viable solutions.
The major contemporary investment in
drying technology has been divided between
convection driers and contact driers. In the
case of convection driers, the main heat
source is a hot gas stream (either flue gas or
heated air) which is fed over the wet sludge.
The hot air transfers heat into the sludge
and simultaneously removes the evaporated
water as well as the other gasified residues.
The moisture is removed in a condensation
process while the rest of the flue gas with
brine has to be safely burned and inertized.
A very interesting and economical
alternative is the contact dryer. It transports
the sludge within a screw conveyor while
the shaft and the blades of the conveyor are
heated to 572 ° Fahrenheit by circulation of
thermal fluid. This technical solution makes
the drying process very efficient, requiring
significantly less floor space in factory
settings.
Modular components for the immediate
incineration of the dried sludge and flue gas
can further improve efficiency, especially
when coupled with a power generation
module based on ORC technology.
Innovative screw conveyor incinerator
devices such as this have already seen
adoption in Germany. At the beginning
of December 2007 an innovative sludge
incinerator began operation in Altenstadt,
in Germany. With an annual capacity
of 120,000 tons of dewatered sludge,
this incinerator has made a substantial
contribution to the thermal utilization of
municipal sewage sludge in Bavaria, and
has played a significant role in helping to
meet the objectives of the Bavarian State
Ministry for the Environment and Consumer
Protection to gradually replace agricultural
sewage sludge utilization.
The sludge incineration plant is designed
for the thermal utilization of sewage sludge
from municipalities within a 60mi radius
of the plant. It operates on innovative
technology that differs from common sludge
grate incinerator designs. Here, the wellmixed fuel (sludge, screenings, fermentation
residues from the neighboring biogas plant
etc.) is crushed to particle sizes of <2inch
and pre-dried to approximately 65% dry
matter before being inserted with a spinner
on the step grate, despite different grain
sizes, the turbulence in the combustion
chamber cause an even distribution of
the material. Once on the grate, the fuel
smolders, leading to a uniform burning
combustion bed. Relatively low temperatures
in the combustion zone reduce NOx and
slagging. The plant is built in 2 lines each
with 13,6 MBTU heat power. Prior to each
incineration line, which is heated by thermal
fluid, there is a contact dryer. The sludge is
then led through screw conveyers to obtain
about 65% dry matter. The thermal oil is
heated by hot flue gas to around 572° F.
Once in the mud bunker, the delivered
sludge is mixed by a process-driven
excavator to achieve a relatively
homogeneous calorific value of around 2150
BTU/lb x °F. The combustion gases are
cleaned in a multi-stage exhaust gas cleaning
system with emissions far below the limit
values according to 17. BimSchV (according
to German emission regulations).
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43
Putting The O In Advanced Oxidative Processes
Michael Mangham, Premier Materials Technology, Inc.
The 21st century has brought with it a
host of new emerging contaminants that
old line treatment methods are failing to
mitigate. Among these are personal care
products (PCPs) that include prescription
drug residues and chemicals from items such
as shampoo, cyanobacteria, and pesticides.
This list does not even include some of the
older problems which have never been dealt
with, including PCBs and dioxins.
wastewater treatment. One drug in this
study was even found at rates of 120%
the pretreatment amount. The hypothesis
offered was that bacteria were producing the
drugs after water treatment. I would offer
another thought. Chlorine is an ingredient
in many drugs and by treating wastewater
with chlorine operators are simply adding
additional components for the drugs to use in
reassembling.
Cyanobacteria is the contaminate that
receives the most headlines in the warm
months. Last year an entire city’s drinking
water was shut down for several days in
Toledo, Ohio. Cyanobacteria plague most
of the country and an easy, comprehensive
solution has been very elusive. Also known
as blue-green algae, it is precipitated
by excessive amounts of nutrients such
as nitrogen and phosphates in the water
column. The cyanobacteria feed on these
nutrients and grow explosively. The real
solution to this problem is not to combat the
bacteria, but rather to dramatically reduce
the agricultural run-off responsible, while
in the meantime causing no reduction in the
production of drinkable water.
The list of new problems is seemingly
endless. But what of new ways to deal
with these emerging contaminates? There
is hope in the category called Advanced
Oxidative Processes. This grouping includes
methods such as ozone, hydrogen peroxide,
hydroxyls, ultraviolet (UV), and superoxide
(SO).
The EPA also handed water providers
another chore when it raised the allowable
limits of glyphosate, (the main ingredient
in Roundup, the ubiquitous biocide from
Monsanto). As farmers use more Roundup,
the amounts washed into the nation’s water
will increase. Glyphosate, also known
previously as Agent Orange during the
Vietnam War era has been held responsible
for causing many birth defects.
Just recently, another potential problem
has surfaced. Research from a Wisconsin
scientist has revealed that some prescription
drugs are reassembling themselves after
44
From this group, ozone has made the largest
inroads and is also the oldest. It is composed
of three oxygen atoms and is very unstable.
At ground level it is considered a pollutant
and disintegrates in a very short time.
Ozone will remediate a very wide range of
problems such as bacteria, some chemicals,
and many PCPs. The disadvantages are that
is very corrosive and somewhat expensive
as well as very short-lived. Ultraviolet is
used in conjunction with ozone to insure the
complete removal of bacteria. UV bulbs are
expensive to replace, however, increasing
long-term costs.
There is currently some excitement about
the use of hydroxyls (OH-). Hydroxyls are a
form of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that
have very high oxidation capabilities. It is
difficult to envision their use in any but the
most limited arenas because their lifespan
is less than a second. They are also not that
easy to produce on a mass production basis.
This brings us to the newest entrant in the
water cleanup field, superoxide (SO), an
oxygen molecule with an extra electron
(O2-). SO is a powerful oxidant that
remediates a wide scope of pollutants. On
an oxidation scale where chlorine is equal
to 1.0, ozone rates 1.52, and SO comes in
at 2.35. An additional advantage is that
SO lasts about 7 days (as long as it doesn’t
encounter a pollutant) and is totally safe to
use. SO is as old as the atmosphere, but the
technology to mass produce it is only about
12 years old.
SO will destroy any organic pollutant
by reacting with the carbon atom in that
pollutant, producing carbon dioxide. This is
called a Fenton reaction and was discovered
in the 1890s. Organic pollutants are the great
majority of what water operators deal with
on a daily basis, so a method of dealing with
organics is a very valuable addition to the
armory. The availability of SO technology
means that PCBs and dioxins can now be
treated in situ with no secondary pollutants
and no dredging. This will reduce mitigation
costs by 96%.
SO is extremely effective in dealing with
anaerobic bacteria such as salmonella, E.
coli, enterococcus, and coliform die within
minutes of exposure. This bacteria killing
ability also extends to cyanobacteria where
both the Army Corps and a research team
from Stanford discovered that cyanobacteria
as well as the neurotoxin microcystus were
destroyed in less than 5 minutes. A 2013
paper found that SO reacts with manganese
to remediate excess nutrients (nitrogen and
phosphates) as well as pollutants such as
coal ash (Hansel, 2013). There are many
thousands of scientific research papers
describing the effects and uses of SO as a
cleanup tool.
SO will also oxidize most metals, causing
them to precipitate out of solution. Recent
research proved that SO secreted by some
marine organisms is responsible for the
recycling of trace metals in the world’s
oceans. SO is also now known to be one of
the factors in dealing with air pollution in the
troposphere. In time, SO may become one
of the more important new technologies in
the water industry.
Currently, there are two technologies
available for the production of SO. The
older is titanium dioxide coatings. Invented
in Japan in the 1970s, TiO2 coatings produce
SO passively in the presence of UV and
light. The amounts of SO produced are
small and subject to the availability of light.
The newer technology is the Kria ionizer,
also from Japan. This device produces
SO in quantity by pulling oxygen from the
atmosphere and electrically attaching an
electron to oxygen molecules. The SO is
then injected into a stream of water that is
returned to the body of water being treated.
The Kria is a small, mobile device able to
operate in the field or in an industrial setting.
In the field, the ionizer has an operating
range of one mile and can treat any organic
pollutant as well as most metals. Energy
consumption is listed at 750 watts/hour.
SO is just one of the many promising new
technologies for water treatment in the 21st
century.
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KRIA Ionizer creates and injects
superoxide (SO) into the water
column and sediment raising the
dissolved oxygen (DO) level to start
the cleanup process without chemicals.
Key Applications:
• Harmful Bacteria Reduction or
Elimination
• Cyanobacteria / Algae Reduction
• Excessive Nutrient Pollution Reduction
• Storm Water, Waste Water, and
Drinking Water Ponds
• Improves Fish Hatcheries and Fish Farms
• Improves Aquatic and Plant Life
• Cleans Oil Spills
Suction
Hose
Superoxide (SO)
Return Hose
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www.premiermaterials.com
45
New Approaches & Technologies For Tackling
Emerging Pollutants In Drinking & Wastewater
Ulf Stein, Evelyn Lukat, Anna Bee Szendrenyi, Ecologic Institute
Introduction
uptake of knowledge, prototypes, practices
In recent decades, emerging pollutants from
sector to tackle emerging pollutants more
pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, and
large-scale agriculture have posed new
challenges for the water management sector.
Coupled with demographic changes, climate
change, as well as aging and deteriorating
water infrastructures, research and
innovation in the water sector have become
increasingly important for ensuring the
long-term sustainability and quality of water
resources.
The need for innovation
Despite these challenges, the adoption of
appropriate practices and technologies
that effectively address and tackle such
emerging pollutants remains low. Improved
knowledge transfer and better science
communication among key stakeholders,
including scientists, the private sector,
and water utilities have been identified as
central to addressing the low rate of uptake
of appropriate technologies. In particular,
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
have emerged as key go-betweens for
increasing innovation in the water sector and
encouraging knowledge dissemination and
uptake of research.
In Europe, efforts to address emerging
pollutants in drinking and wastewater are
already in progress. Using applied research
and demonstration sites across Europe, the
DEMEAU project is demonstrating new,
collaborative approaches for advancing the
46
and technologies that enable the water
effectively. The project consists of a network
of partners from research, water utilities
and SMEs that are exploring five promising
water treatment technologies: Managed
Aquifer Recharge (MAR), Hybrid Ceramic
Membrane Filtration (HCMF), Automated
Neural Net Control Systems (ANCS),
Advanced Oxidation Techniques (AOT), and
Bioassays.
New collaborative approaches
Using action research, the DEMEAU
A visualization of the approach.
and utilities have been able to broaden their
markets by pioneering the water sector.
project provides new, improved approaches
Technologies for emerging pollutants
water treatment technologies as a way to
Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR)
for developing and testing relevant
innovatively and effectively address the
gaps and opportunities for tackling emerging
pollutants. Bridging the gap between
research and industry, DEMEAU facilitates
close collaboration and feedback among
the research community, SMEs and water
utilities by lowering the economic and
shared risks associated with innovation and
trial of such new, promising technologies.
To fuel innovation and knowledge exchange,
the project actively explores synergies
among drinking and wastewater treatment
technologies. This integrated approach
has been critical to the overall success and
uptake of the five technologies explored in
the project. On the one hand, researchers
have been able to receive inspiration and
critical feedback from SMEs, while SMEs
Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR)
is a versatile technology that provides
drinking water supply, process water for
industry, for irrigation and for sustaining
groundwater dependent ecosystems. MAR
uses natural aquifer treatment processes,
such as mechanical filtration, sorption and
biodegradation, at the subsurface level.
These natural treatment processes do not
require additional chemicals, offering a
more sustainable alternative to traditional
treatment processes.
MAR has been shown to provide a variety
of benefits, including water storage and
improved water quality. However, the
implementation of MAR is often hampered
by uncertainty relating to economic and
environmental profiles. To address this,
Copyright: MAR infiltration system in Sant Vicenç dels Horts (Barcelona, Spain).
life cycle assessments (LCA) and life
in water treatment to remove pathogens,
plate has helped to enhance its durability,
of indicators selected for environmental
and process and filter backwash water.
backwashing, particularly in the long-term.
cycle costing (LCC) tools, based on a set
impacts and costs, are being applied to
MAR sites for comparison against other
competitive water treatment technologies.
From the assessments, it has been found that
natural, infiltration pond systems are a low-
cost and low-energy option for groundwater
recharge, provided that a suitable long-term
strategy to prevent clogging is implemented.
Such ponds can be upgraded or combined
with advanced oxidation processes to
enhance their capacity for removal of
organic micropollutants.
Hybrid Ceramic Membrane Filtration
(HCMF)
Polymeric membranes are widely used
particles and organics from surface, ground,
However, ceramic membranes are much
making the technology more resilient during
more resilient, outperforming polymeric
Automated Neural Net Control Systems
(ANCS)
(e.g. temperature, pH and chemicals).
Automated Neural Net Control Systems
membranes even under extreme conditions
LCC assessments based on case studies also
show that HCMF have lower operational
in drinking water processing and supply,
implementation costs were higher
urban drainage systems, and activated
for HCMF. In order to improve cost
sludge reactors in wastewater treatment
effectiveness, several alterations to the
plants. In the drinking water industry, ANCS
ceramic membrane modules have already
technology is usually applied as an add-on
been tested and successfully applied within
to optimize membrane filtration, and thus
the DEMEAU project. For example, by
is widely applicable. Within DEMEAU,
vessel, fewer valves, and therefore steel, are
needed. In addition, an improved bottom
optimisation systems that use tailored
mathematical algorithms, with applications
costs than polymeric membranes, though
combining several membranes into one
(ANCS) are computer-based, process
marked improvements in filtration and
enhancements in process productivity (of
47
about 4 to 15%) has made ANCS particularly
lucrative as an add-on for existing membrane
filtration plants in Europe to increase their
increasing environmental and economic
sustainability.
However, several barriers to widespread
uptake still exist for ANCS. Life cycle
assessments have revealed that a certain
degree of complexity is necessary in order
for ANCS to be cost-effective. Consequently,
larger plants are more cost-effective than
smaller plants. Similarly, as maintenance is
a necessary aspect of the technology, ANCS
is more cost-effective at larger scales. As a
result, understanding the extent and costs
of maintenance required for the plant is
Advanced Oxidation Techniques (AOT)
or biological activated carbon filtration.
Due to the collaborative character of
DEMEAU, the project is actively facilitating
Oxidation techniques have a long tradition
a safe environment for utilities and SMEs
wastewater, however, its benefits for use in
technology in a full-scale drinking water
recently come to light. Results from pilot
oxidation reactor developed by a Dutch SME
using post-ozonation produced removal
fact, the SME estimates 30-40% less energy
pollutants.
compared to conventional reactors using
for use in disinfecting drinking and
to experiment and apply this innovative
removing emerging pollutants have only
plant. The results have been promising: one
plants and the first full-scale application
projects significant energy reductions. In
rates greater than 80% for many emerging
consumption with its oxidation reactor as
Within DEMEAU, researchers, utilities and
SMEs are testing a combination of various
oxidation processes (including O3, O3/
H2O2, UV/H2O2) as well as different post-
treatment applications, such as sand filtration
UV/H2O2 processes.
Bioassays
Current mainstream water monitoring
strategies rely exclusively on chemical
analysis. However, chemical analysis only
Copyright: Ozonation reactor with ozone diffusors in Neugut (Dübendorf, Switzerland).
an important aspect to account for prior to
implementation.
48
bioassays toward regulatory acceptance.
Thirdly, as already highlighted, there are
the operational use of these tools for
mentioned previously, SMEs and water
The studies found that in order to facilitate
economic barriers and associated risks. As
decision-makers, knowledge dissemination
utilities often cannot bear the burden
is essential.
posed by such economic barriers. Because
innovation in the water sector is often
Conclusions and recommendations
fraught with uncertainty, it requires a very
specific environment for actors to be willing
Ultimately, transparent sharing of research
results, increased communication, and more
trans- and interdisciplinary exchange and
to engage and also be successful.
Large-scale projects such as DEMEAU,
collaboration between researchers, utilities
that provide the economic security and
and SMEs have been shown to provide the
stability to innovate, have demonstrated
greatest potential for successful knowledge
the potential to facilitate environments for
transfer and uptake of new technologies.
collaborative technological advancements in
Despite these findings, key barriers to,
water treatment. Not only do such projects
as well as opportunities for, need further
facilitate synergistic, cross-sector knowledge
investigation moving forward.
sharing, but also they provide the testing
Firstly, for promising water treatment
grounds for trying promising technologies
pollutants, regulatory standards have to be
Acknowledgments
identifies specific, targeted compounds with
national- and EU-level, such as for example,
The DEMEAU project is supported by the
the pollutants. Bioassays address this gap in
for water quality of waste water treatment
(EU-FP7) under grant agreement No.
to serve as an additional, complementary
water. In addition, increasing regulatory
Copyright: In the lab using Bioassay techniques.
before they are fully launched on the market.
technologies to effectively tackle emerging
defined for emerging contaminants at the
no information on the biological effects of
laws that establish long-term target values
monitoring strategies, and hold the potential
plant effluent, surface water, and drinking
technology to chemical analysis.
pressures will motivate water utilities to
Because bioassays measure the biological
technologies, while also providing an
effects of single compounds present in
water samples, they are particularly useful
for application in assessing the harmful
308330. DEMEAU follows a solution-
oriented approach using applied research and
demonstration sites to explore five promising
technologies. News on the project and
implement innovative solutions-oriented
detailed contact information for the partners
involved are available on the project website
incentive for technology developers to
www.demeau-fp7.eu.
generate innovations.
effects of complex mixtures of unknown
Secondly, movement towards better
potential to widen the scope of water quality
into the innovation cycle is also needed.
adjusted for testing a range of water sources,
from policy makers and regulators,
biological activities.
follow rather than lead the innovation curve.
Though some scientists and end-users
to raise public awareness on the topic and
pollutants. As a result, bioassays have the
integration of regulators and policy makers
monitoring, and can be tailored to and
Without targeted input and timely feedback
from general toxicity tests to very specific
technological advancements will always
view bioassays as a potential replacement
of more costly techniques, currently,
regulatory acceptance of bioassays is slow.
Demonstration and validation studies
are being carried out in an effort to bring
European Seventh Framework Programme
Informing the general public is one way
create pressures that can result in direct
policy action. In this regard, LCA and LCC
results have a great potential to convey
complex research messages to the nonscientific community.
49
Upcoming GACC Midwest Programs 2015/2016
We look forward to presenting our upcoming
events, which provide the GermanAmerican business community with unique
opportunities to grow, network, and to meet
high-ranking representatives of transatlantic
relations in business and politics.
•
Christkindlmarket Oak Brook | Oak
Brook, IL, Nov. 27 – Dec. 24
•
Transatlantic Dialogue – Agricultural Perspectives | up to three locations in
the Midwest, tbd
October 2015
December 2015
•
German Machinery Delegation | Detroit,
MI & Chicago, IL, Oct. 5-9
•
•
German Machinery Conference - Focus
on Automotive | Detroit, MI, Oct. 6
Children’s Lantern Parade at the
Christkindlmarket | Chicago, IL, Dec. 2
•
•
MI Chapter: Unity Day | Rochester, MI,
Oct. 7
German American Business Outlook
(GABO), New York, NY, Dec. 14
•
GACC Awards Gala & Smart Factory
Industry Forum | Chicago, IL, Oct. 9
•
Energy Efficiency in Industry Business
Delegation | Detroit, MI, Oct. 19-23
•
Energy Efficiency in Industry Business
Conference | Detroit, MI, Oct. 20
•
European Business Networking |
Chicago, IL, Oct. 21
•
MI Chapter: HR Circle | tbd, MI, Oct.
22
•
CO Chapter: Membership Meeting | tbd,
CO, Oct. 23
•
Business Delegation from Saxony |
Chicago, IL & Cincinnati, OH, Oct.
26-30
November 2015
50
IL, Nov. 20 – Dec. 24
•
Health IT Expert Delegation Trip to
Germany | Germany, Nov. 15-22
•
European Business Networking |
Chicago, IL, Nov. 19
•
Grand Opening Christkindlmarket
Chicago | Chicago, IL, Nov. 19
•
CO Chapter – Christkindlmarket |
Denver, CO, Nov. 20 – Dec. 23
•
Christkindlmarket Chicago | Chicago,
excellence in German-American business,
culinary highlights, as well as dancing
and networking to round off a wonderful
evening. On the occasion of the 2015 Gala
we will celebrate the 25th Anniversary of
Germany’s Reunification and welcome
Ambassador JD Bindenagel to share his
remembrance of this seminal world event.
The GACC Awards Gala will ensue our
Industry Forum, the Smart Factory Industry
Forum this year. Join us for this remarkable
event!
Our Signature Events in 2015/2016
Smart Factory Industry Forum,
October 9, 2015
Our new Industry Forum brings together
top-level executives and industry leaders,
providing a business platform to engage
in and discuss current hot topics and
industry trends. This year our Smart Factory
Industry Forum will focus on the future of
manufacturing, Industrie 4.0, elaborating
on its growing strategic importance,
opportunities, and challenges for the
German-American business community.
This year’s conference location, the DMDII,
represents the United States’ flagship
research institute for applying cutting-edge
digital technologies to reduce time and cost
of manufacturing, strengthen the capabilities
of the U.S. supply chain, and reduce
production costs. We look forward to hear
experts in the field share their knowledge on
the future of manufacturing.
GACC Awards Gala,
October 9, 2015
Our Awards Gala combines the favorite
aspects of both our popular MERLIN
Awards Gala and Wine Dinner - awarding
German American Business Outlook 2014
German American Business Outlook,
December 14, 2015
The German American Chambers of
Commerce (GACCs) in cooperation with
the Representative of German Industry
and Trade (RGIT), and Roland Berger
Strategy Consultants survey over 1,900
German subsidiaries in the United States
each year to assess their economic outlook.
The German American Business Outlook
measures the satisfaction of German
companies with the United States as an
investment location and takes on a different
topical angle each year. Last year’s study
found that an overwhelming 98% of
German companies expected positive
revenue growth for their own business
and the U.S. economy in general in 2015.
TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership) gained importance, with
businesses anticipating lower tariffs and
better regulatory cooperation to provide
future growth incentives. This year’s
results will be presented at the Thomson
Reuters Headquarters in New York City on
December 14, 2015.
Annual Economic Forum,
January 29, 2016
Around 200 executives get together at
the beginning of each year for the Annual
Economic Forum, a favorite of the C-level
audience in the Midwest and beyond. Top
speakers from both sides of the Atlantic
identify current economic developments
in the international and, in particular,
the German-American business world.
Attendees from a variety of industries,
companies, and backgrounds listen to
high-ranking speakers from the U.S. and
Europe and discuss synergies and business
opportunities. Past speakers included the
Ambassador of Germany to the U.S., Dr.
Peter Wittig, as well as representatives from
companies such as Ipsen, Rittal, Rational
North America, Volkswagen Group of
America, Wittenstein and the Representative
of German Industry and Trade. The Forum
provides the audience with a wide array
of takeaways from industry experts in
transatlantic business and gives ideas as to
how to ideally prepare their businesses for
success in the year ahead.
German American Business Forum 2015
German American Business Forum
June 16, 2016
You should also mark your calendar for
the German American Business Forum
at the IHK Frankfurt that will take place
Annual Economic Forum 2015
on June 16, 2016. The all-day conference
targets German companies interested in
strengthening business relations within the
U.S. market, and will feature informative
workshops and engaging speakers. The
event will provide an exclusive platform
to network and exchange ideas with some
of the highest-ranking representatives of
German companies in the U.S.
Get involved! We look forward to
welcoming you at our events.
In addition to our signature events,
GACC Midwest is also proud to be part
of HANNOVER MESSE 2016, which
will take place on April 25-29, 2015 in
Hannover, Germany. HANNOVER MESSE
is the largest industrial trade show in the
world and a proven platform for initiating
tangible global business opportunities. In
2015, 6,500 exhibitors from across the
world introduced their innovations in areas
such as advanced manufacturing, industrial
supply, digital factory, energy, and mobility.
In 2016, the US will be the official Partner
Country. Through a strategic partnership
between the U.S. Department of Commerce,
U.S. Commercial Service/SelectUSA, the
U.S. Embassy in Germany, U.S. Chamber
of Commerce, and Deutsche Messe, this
event will generate unique opportunities for
investment attraction and trade promotion.
GACC Midwest is working closely with
U.S. Department of Commerce, Deutsche
Messe AG, and Hannover Fairs USA to
make Partner Country USA an even greater
success. GACC Midwest is the official
partner for any economic development
organizations who want to be part of the
US Investment Pavilion. We want to make
sure that all the great regions of the US are
well-represented in Hannover next April, to
showcase themselves and take advantage of
the significant publicity that comes along
with Partner Country status – ultimately
generating more business, more growth, and
more jobs.
For more information, please visit our
website and feel free to contact us with any
questions.
German American Chamber
of Commerce of the Midwest, Inc.
Chicago, IL 60654
Tel.: +1 312 644 2662
Email: info@gaccmidwest.org
URL: www.gaccmidwest.org
51
DE Services - Take Your Business Global - Now!
GACC Midwest has been supporting
German and American companies in
transatlantic business for over 50 years.
Profit from our extensive experience in
both American and German business
environments and our vast industry
knowledge. Our intercultural, bilingual
team specializes in effectively initiating
German-American business relationships
and establishing German companies in the
U.S. We represent and support companies
both in the short and long-term, focusing all
of our efforts on ensuring a successful future
for your company in the German-American
business world.
To ensure professional support, GACC
Midwest – under the service brand
DEinternational – has developed a wide
range of services to assist German and
U.S. companies in their efforts to expand
internationally.
Market Study
A market study provides you with essential
information about market size, market
developments, competitors, distribution
and sales structures as well as product
requirements specific to the US or German
market. Before you decide to pursue a new
market or location, an in-depth analysis of
the target market is essential.
Business Partner Search
Is your company looking for new strategic
partners to market your products or services?
We offer efficient and practical solutions
to help companies build up their business
activities quickly and effectively through a
targeted partner search.
Market Entry & Business
Development Services
Our market entry and business development
services support your market entry in the
U.S. or Germany and set the foundation
for your long-term success. With market
analysis, targeted search for business
partners, a virtual office, site selection
services or trade show support, we facilitate
your market entry activities.
M&A Consulting
We offer strategic M&A consulting–starting
with research, identification, analysis, and
approach of suitable target companies–
followed by data evaluation as well as
acquisition and integration assistance–
together with accountants, lawyers, and
financial institutions.
Collection Services
Virtual Office
Our virtual office service provides an initial
step towards establishing your U.S. presence
and serves as an interface between your
company in Germany and in the U.S.
Trade Show Support
Are you planning a trade show presence at
a U.S. or German trade fair to attract new
business partners and customers? We can
support you in the preparation, execution,
and follow-up activities involved in
exhibiting at a trade show.
Site Selection
The complexity of a site selection process in
the U.S. market requires a trusted partner on
site. Thanks to our broad network of
52
members, contacts, and clients we help you
independently and objectively to find the
ideal location for your company.
As one of the most important trade partners
for German companies, regrettably, it is
sometimes the case that a U.S. client pays its
invoices belatedly or not at all. We support
German companies and private persons
claim outstanding debts from defaulting
partners in the U.S.
If you want to learn more about our market
entry and business development services,
please contact Virginia Attaway Rounds at
rounds@gaccmidwest.org or +1 (312) 494-2163
HR Services
With our HR services, we offer full-cycle
recruitment support for open positions at
your company. We also coach your U.S.
and/or German employees to learn the most
important intercultural differences in a work
environment and prepare them for business
meetings, presentations as well as for all
communication with clients and colleagues.
Career Services
We offer full-cycle recruitment support
for open positions at your company. We
specialize in matching job seekers from a
wide range of fields and experience levels to
positions at our client companies. Our focus
is on identifying qualified bilingual talent as
well as professionals with transatlantic and/
or start-up business experience.
Coaching for Intercultural Teams &
Managers
After founding a subsidiary and recruiting
appropriate employees, there remains
the complex task of integrating German
or U.S. employees into an international
work environment. To help facilitate the
integration of your employees into the
international environment, we offer coaching
services for intercultural teams and managers
in a wide variety of situations.
If you need support in filling an open position at
your company, please contact Justin Flaxbart at
flaxbart@gaccmidwest.org or +1 (312) 644-3369.
Event & Delegation Services
As event service provider, we support the
preparation, organization, and realization
of your business events in various formats.
In addition to that, we organize delegation
visits to the US and business trips to
Germany.
Event Services
Do you need professional support to
organize your company event? From smaller
workshops to conferences and summits up
to galas and receptions, we are capable of
covering many event formats and catering to
different industry focuses.
Delegation Services
We have found that delegations provide a
useful tool for discovering new markets and
business areas. We not only set up delegation
programs, but provide support for companies
to find new contacts and business partners
based on an analysis of their technology and
developments in the target market.
If you need support in organizing your event or a
delegation visit, please contact Nadine Schieban
at schieban@gaccmidwest.org or +1 (312) 4942180.
53
The German American
Chambers Of Commerce Network
The German American Chambers of
Commerce (GACCs) are one of the largest
bilateral trade organizations worldwide.
With 2,500 member companies and office
locations in Atlanta, Chicago, and New York
as well as branch offices in Detroit, Houston,
Philadelphia, and San Francisco, the
members and clients of GACCs benefit from
a nation-wide service network. In several
states, the GACCs are also represented by
local chapters. GACC Midwest has active
chapters in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota
and Colorado.
The GACCs are an integral part of the
network of German Chambers of Commerce
Abroad (AHKs). At 130 locations in 90
countries around the world, the members of
the German Chamber Network offer their
experience, connections, and services to
German and foreign companies. The service
portfolio of the AHKs is unified worldwide
under the brand name DEinternational.
In the U.S., our liaison office in Washington,
DC, the Representative of German Industry
and Trade, represents the interests of the
German business community vis-à-vis both
the US administration and other international
organizations based in Washington, DC. The
AHKs cooperate closely with the foreign
trade and inward investment agency of the
Federal Republic of Germany – Germany
Trade & Invest.
The German American Chamber of
Commerce of the Midwest (GACC
Midwest), headquartered in Chicago,
and with a branch office in Detroit, was
founded in 1963. Our continuing mission
is to further, promote, and assist in the
expansion of bilateral trade and investment
between Germany and the United States,
especially the Midwest. Focus areas of our
54
work include automotive, manufacturing,
renewables, and skilled workforce.
GACC Midwest’s territory covers 14
U.S. states: the 13 states of the Midwest
(Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska,
North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and
Wisconsin) and Colorado, comprising
together approximately one quarter of the
nation’s geographical area, its population,
and its GDP. With over 800 members,
GACC Midwest enables its members to
socialize and build important business
relationships throughout its network. Our
organization combines elements of a trade
commission, a membership association, and
a professional consultancy - quite a unique
concept in international trade promotion.
More specifically, the Chamber’s three
pillars consist of:
1. Public Function
Being the official representatives of German
companies, AHKs are key players of German
Our national network
foreign business development on behalf
of the Federal Republic of Germany. The
GACCs represent German business interests
in the USA.
2. Member Organization
The GACCs are a member organization for
companies actively involved in bilateral
business relations. As a reliable partner for
both U.S. and German companies, we offer
excellent services to our members. The
GACCs interact with political organizations
and businesses in terms of promoting the
bilateral business relations and facilitate
trade and investment.
3. Professional Consultancy and
Service Provider
The GACCs’ service portfolio brand
“DEinternational” provides consulting
services to companies both from Germany
and in the U.S. in order to support their
foreign business activities. Get in touch with
us now for more information!
WATER QUALITY
MONITORING MADE EASY
ONE SERIES – MANY PARAMETERS
OUR TESTOMAT®
• Water Hardness
• Phosphate
• Polymer
• Sulfite
• Alkalinity
• Bromine
• Chlorine Dioxide
• Total & Free Chlorine
• Chromium VI
• Iron
• p- and minus m-Value
… Make your boiler house, cooling
tower, nuclear power or reverse
osmosis plant more energy efficient!
Gebrüder Heyl Analysentechnik
Orleanstr. 75b, 31135 Hildesheim
+49 (0) 51 21 289 33 - 0
info@heyl.de
Heyl Brothers North America L.P.
Chicago, IL 60654
+1 (312)
377-6123
German American Water
Technology
Magazine 2015/2016
55
usa@heyl.de
Thank You For Supporting The GAWT Initiative!
GLOBAL WATER
TECHNOLOGIES
56

German American Water Technology Magazine - AHK USA

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