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Latest 50 news articles

Pollution Prevention Under Tropical Rain Storms

Where intense tropical rain meets rapid urban development, the loser is frequently the local water course, into which all the trash, silts, hydrocarbons and other pollutants are discharged with the stormwater runoff. The sea is the final recipient, and riverine silts and sediments can be detected and often still seen many miles out from the estuaries of large tropical rivers. To help mitigate this pollution, recent trials of Hydro International’s Downstream Defender® by the National Hydraulic R...

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Polish Innovation Comes to the Environment’s Rescue

EnviroMix®, an innovative technology for the treatment and stabilization of industrial hazardous waste, is either already in use or in the process of being implemented on virtually every continent. It ensures a 99% reduction of pollution in one simple process. What does EnviroMix® have in common with inventions such as the helicopter, steam engine, two-way radio, bulletproof vest, color photography, blue laser or a paper clip? All of them were developed by Polish inventors.

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Vinyl 2010

In 2000, the European polyvinyl chloride (PVC) industry launched Vinyl 2010 – a voluntary commitment to achieve ambitious targets by the end of the decade on collection and recycling of post-consumer PVC waste, the phase out of certain additives, minimising the environmental impact of PVC production, and encouraging social dialogue between all of the industry’s stakeholders. Why did the European PVC industry set up Vinyl 2010? PVC is one of the most widely used polymers in the world and is n...

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Full-scale Experience with THIOPAQ® Technology from Paques - An Elegant Way to Desulphurise Biogas

European governments have increasingly recognised the fact that fossil fuels on earth are limited and that alternative energy sources need to be developed and implemented. Wind, sun and biomass are widely recognised as new sources of renewable energy. Most countries have set ambitious targets for the development of alternative energy sources. Germany with its Feed-In Tariff Program is one of the front runners for stimulating sustainable energy development and use. This programme is largely...

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Enabling Carbon Management - Moving Beyond Carbon Measurement and Reporting

Creating a carbon footprint report has become a commonplace activity for most businesses. It is increasingly expected that they will participate in voluntary carbon reporting initiatives, of which there are an ever growing number, including the likes of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), as well as any compliance reporting obligations, such as the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC). On top of this the carbon footprint is often included in the annual CSR o...

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Serving up Food-Factory Waste for Anaerobic Digestion

At its new £5m anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in South Wales, InSource Energy projects director, Justin Strutt needed suitable containers for handling factory food waste. Already in use at the food factory were plastic pallet boxes made by Dolav (UK). He inspected them to see if they would meet requirements. “Our Dolavs are turned upside down on rotating forks to be emptied so we liked the strength of their sturdy, integral one-piece runner and ordered the 3-runner, Ace 1000 plastic pallet boxe...

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ALGAE and BIOFILM Chemical-free Control and Treatment Solution

Algae are a large and diverse group of photoautotrophic organisms. They are single celled, colonial or macrophytic organisms, containing chlorophyll a, have simple reproductive structures, and no differentiated true roots, stems or leaves. The green algae are primitive members of kingdom Plantae, though other types of algae are classified outside the kingdom entirely. It is believed that land plants evolved from green algae about 500 million years ago, with fossil records for certain species dat...

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Chinese Power Plants Emit as Much NOX as All the Passenger Cars in the World - McIlvaine Company

China has spent more on equipment to reduce NOx from power plants in the last two years than any other country, but it has a long way to go. The installed capacity of deNOx systems at the end of 2010 was 58,000 MW. This means that about 10 percent of the total coal-fired capacity of 600,000 MW is fitted with deNOx equipment. By contrast, two-thirds of the capacity is fitted with scrubbers to remove acid gases such as SO2. McIlvaine Company forecasts the market for deNOx systems in World NOx Cont...

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Remediation on Track at Former ’Dirtiest Site in Europe’ - ALcontrol Group

The Avenue former coking works located 3km south of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England is a prominent site known internationally by the remediation and civil engineering sectors. Much has changed both on the site and in waste management / environmental permitting since Construction News, in July 2006, described The Avenue as ’The dirtiest site in Europe.’ Exceeding 80 hectares, the site operated for 36 years as a coking works and had a long and varied industrial history prior to this use. In add...

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Flexibility is Key to Solving Air Pollution Abatement Challenges - Trevor Lawton

Modern air pollution regulations increasingly demand the deployment of more flexible abatement systems to address the growing complexity of air pollution regulations, which have to address a multi-tiered array of local authority, national and international requirements. The ever increasing pressure to reduce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is making it more difficult for plant operators to determine the most suitable pollution system for their process. Many air pollution applications call for...

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Trojan Technologies to Supply Australia’s Largest Ultraviolet (UV) Disinfection System - Trojan Technologies

LONDON, ONTARIO, CANADA – January 19, 2011 – Trojan Technologies and exclusive distributor in Australia, Aquatec-Maxcon PTY Ltd., have been selected by the Eastern Tertiary Alliance to provide the ultraviolet (UV) disinfection system for the Eastern Treatment Plant Tertiary Upgrade Project in Melbourne, Australia. Trojan will be supplying seven closed vessel (in-pipe) UV reactors equipped with revolutionary TrojanUV Solo Lamp™ Technology. The UV system will disinfect average and peak tertiary tr...

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Sludge Buildup and Aerator Blockage Solved - Franklin Miller

The District of Kitimat, British Columbia, a pristine coastal community with 10,000 residents, is located at the head of the Douglas Channel and the Kitimat River. The area is a major salmon spawning corridor, supporting a large sports fishing industry. For both ecological and economic reasons, any facility discharging wastewater into the river must be mindful of strict discharge regulations. No one is more aware of this than the management of the Kitimat Wastewater Treatment Plant. Recently, t...

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Innovative Reed Beds Treat Heavier Loads in Smaller Footprints - Tori Sellers

Reed beds - a type of constructed wetland - have been used in municipal wastewater systems since the 1980s. But innovations are now widening their application to treat high-strength, industrial wastewaters such as landfill leachate, dairy waste, hydrocarbon contaminated groundwater and contaminated run-off. Earlier generation passive reed beds had a limit to the efficacy of natural biological, chemical and physical forces to remove pollutants from different types of wastewater. But that’s all...

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Problem-Solver Oxidative Waste Water Treatment With the FENTOX® process, Toxic Waste Waters are Rendered Biodegradable - Eisenmann

Authorities impose strict requirements for the biodegradability of unwanted substances in water. This applies for the chemical oxygen demand (COD) in particular. At the same time, industrial waste water, for instance from chemical, pharmaceutical or cosmetics production, often has such a high concentration of toxic organic substances that their degradation is not possible in a biological sewage treatment plant. Also, high concentrations of salt, high temperatures or high variabilities in waste w...

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Golden Flake Snack Foods’ Onsite Wastewater Treatment Facility Eliminates Municipal Surcharges with New Membrane Bioreactor System - Jim McMahon

The membrane bioreactor (MBR) system, designed and built by ADI Systems Inc., treats up to 400,000 gallons per day of raw snack food wastewater using advanced membrane bioreactor technology for liquid-solid separation, reducing suspended solids and biochemical oxygen demand to less than 2 milligrams per liter, eliminating $100,000 per month in municipal wastewater surcharges, and releasing 250 gallons per minute of treated, filtered, oxygenated water into the local watercourse ecosystem. Golden...

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Putzmeister Piston Pumps Convey Biomass - Putzmeister Solid Pumps GmbH

Handling 20 Years of Experience in Biomass With increasing energy demand and rising energy costs, the production of methane gas through biomass processing is becoming ever more important, especially through odourtight pipelines. Meanwhile, in cooperation with process engineering partners, the issue of foreign bodies which are disturbing tremendously the process, has been resolved. In addition, besides the different processes for biomass treatment, Putzmeister is specialised in pumping hazardous...

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Digital Dosing – A Solution-Oriented Concept From Grundfos - Grundfos

Precipitation, flocculation, neutralisation and disinfection are essential physico-chemical processes used in the treatment of water and wastewater. Application of the highly effective state-of-the-art chemicals now used in these processes needs to be precise, cost-effective and eco-friendly. Some of the chemicals are also very difficult to dose. Conventional dosing pumps are often unable to cope, but digital dosing pumps with cutting-edge drive technology and user-friendly operating software of...

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Extending the Life of Small Wastewater Plant in Switzerland - Tsurumi (Europe)

Tsurumi’s FHP decanting pumps provide a cost effective solution to limited tank capacity in small wastewater treatment plants. The pumps remove supernatant water to leave only pure sewage, reducing the overall volume of stored waste and extending the life of the plant. Iseltwald wastewater plant in Switzerland uses five FHP pumps for this very purpose. Small wastewater treatment plants do not have the luxury of excess space. With limits on rotting tower size and even tighter limits on budgets...

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Using Air Flow Meters on Aeration Diffusers Improves Wastewater Treatment Efficiency - Steve Craig

Wastewater treatment plants (Fig 1 and 2) use different treatment processes to eliminate organic pollutants in the wastewater. One of the most common processes is the activated sludge method, which biologically treats the wastewater through the use of large aeration basins. This process requires the pumping of compressed air into the aeration basins where a diffuser system ensures the air is distributed evenly for optimum treatment. The activated sludge method introduces microorganisms into the...

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Tsurumi Provides “Green Clean” for Portuguese Landmark - Tsurumi (Europe)

Cleaning any object of historical or national significance requires precise care and attention and the right tools for the job.This applies even when the object in question is a bridge spanning 344m, sitting 60 m above a river. Add in some strict rules on environmental damage and the challenge looks daunting. But with the help of Tsurumi pumps the landmark Maria Pia Bridge in Porto, Portugal got a fresh clean look and an impressive 98% of water used in the task was removed without disappearing i...

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German Water Partnership Adapted Water Solutions Worldwide - Dipl.-Ing. Stefan Girod

The GermanWater Partnership (GWP) is a joint initiative of presently 300 members ranging from a broad variety of companies to specialised associations and scientific research institutes of the German water sector. Functioning as a network, GWP bundles the expertise of the German water industry, science and politics and provides a central contact address for all international requests for such know-how. This unique network of globally oriented German water experts is actively supported by five fe...

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Cut Cost with Vacuum Distillation Systems! Don’t Waste Money by Focusing on Investment Cost Only - Dipl.-Ing. Jochen Freund

Which method is the best for the treatment of industrial waste water occurring in my production? Very often it is easy to answer this question: Vacuum distillation. Vacuum distillation is established on the market as most feasible and reliable method for the processing of industrial waste water. But which evaporator is the best one for my application? How can I compare the different vacuum distillation systems on the market? Lifecycle cost analysis (LCC) has proven to be an excellent instru...

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New WEDECO AOP Solution from ITT targets Micropollutants - Thomas Holthofer

Growing concerns among scientists, public health agencies, government officials, and the public have prompted added interest worldwide in the potential health effects of increasingly common chemical contaminants that have been finding their way into our water supplies. These contaminants are used in everything from industry to agriculture to medical care. To address this challenge, ITT Corporation, a global leader in the treatment and transport of water and wastewater, announced that it has lau...

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Analysis of Life-Cycle Costs of Hydraulic-Driven Piston Pumps - Putzmeister Solid Pumps GmbH

It is common practice on machine tools (and other large capital equipment purchases) to assess the value of a machine beyond its purchase price. The key term here is life-cycle costs (LCC). This analysis is less commonly used when planning for plant and equipment purchasing and design, but the idea has great benefits in over-all long term cost savings In the past, biogas facilities were built with the simplest means. Discarded steel tanks were used for the fermentation of biomass. The produced m...

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ProMinent and ProMaqua at IFAT ENTSORGA 2010, Munich - Michael Birmelin

We control it The ProMinent Group, a global supplier of water treatment solutions, is exhibiting at this year’s IFAT. The slogan "We control it" illustrates that ProMinent develops and manufactures more than "just" metering pumps. At IFAT in Munich from 13 – 17 September 2010, the Heidelberg-based company will be presenting solutions for filtering, disinfection, oxidisation, and measurement and control. At stand 425/526 in Hall A3 the company will be showcasing components, systems and technolo...

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IFAT Entsorga Opens it’s Doors for Business from 13th to 17th September in Munich, Germany - Messe München

IFAT Entsorga In 2008 IFAT set a new record for attendance, with 2,605 exhibitors from 41 countries and around 120,000 trade visitors from 170 countries. From 2010 onwards Messe München and the BDE will be holding this event as a cooperation. IFAT will in future take place under the name of IFAT ENTSORGA, World’s Leading Trade Fair for Water, Sewage, Waste and Raw Materials Management. The next event takes place at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre from 13 to 17 September 2010. IFAT ENTSORGA is t...

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Renewable Energy, Landfill Gas and EfW: Now, Next and Future - K A Adu-Gyamfia, R Villaa and F Coulona

The United Kingdom (UK) has traditionally used landfill disposal as the predominant method of waste management. However, landfilling is unsustainable due to its harmful effects on the environment and public health. Under the European Union (EU) Landfill Directive, member nations are now required to divert biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) from landfills. The UK has also committed to the EU Renewable Energy Directive, which binds it to sourcing at least 15% of its energy mix from renewables by...

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The Smart Alternative to Disposal Process water recycling secures tomorrows earnings - Dipl.-Ing. Jochen Freund

Do you have waste water in your production which cannot be disposed of into the public sewer system? How do you manage this waste water? Often this waste water is disposed of with specialised waste management companies. This is a straightforward procedure not disturbing the day to day business in the production. However; here big saving possibilities are hidden. When processing this water in-house 70 % of the occurring cost can be saved. When processing 2.000 m³ industrial waste water in-house i...

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Grundfos Simplifies Pump Pit Management and Reduces Costs with AUTOADAPT - Grundfos

Pumps with AUTOADAPT adapt to all conditions in the pit, eliminating 75% of all service calls and reducing installation and commissioning costs by 50%. Grundfos sewage grinders and drainage, effluent and sewage pumps with AUTOADAPT simplify the pumping of wastewater by removing all external sensors, switches and cables from the pit. Safeguard your wastewater transfer AUTOADAPT is a genuinely intelligent solution bringing innovative and patented solutions to municipal, private and industrial w...

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Digital DosingTM Unique Solutions for Challenging Dosing Processes - Matthias Ulmer

Disinfection, neutralisation, precipitation and flocculation are essential physical and chemical processes of water treatment and wastewater recycling. Modern, highly efficient chemicals have to be used economically and with minimal impact on the environment. Some of these chemicals are very difficult to handle, and this overstrains conventional dosing pumps. These challenges can be met by digital dosing pumps with modern drive technology and control software. The chemistry in water treatment,...

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Saving Water through Innovative Technology - Mr. Torsten Erwe

Bayer Technology Services is an expert when it comes to treating wastewater. One of its visions for the future is a means of treating heavily contaminated wastewater streams so effectively that they can be returned to production processes for reuse. A sensible way of using a scarce resource. Temperatures in excess of 40oC are nothing out of the ordinary in the Negev desert. The dry heat sometimes makes it difficult even to breathe. Particularly for someone like Henner Schlieper who comes from t...

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Pressure and Level in Water Treatment - Mikael Leth Jensen

Having built more than 10,000 plants all over the world serving one billion people, Degrémont has proved itself without doubt to be an expert in the field of water treatment. The company develops and builds facilities such as drinking water production installations, desalination plants, waste water treatment and sewage sludge processing plants for local communities and industries. To ensure the efficient operation of its plants, Degrémont relies on the know-how and expertise of dedicated partner...

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Innovative Solution to Hazardous Industrial Waste

Hazardous waste, derived from industry or factories utilising incineration methods, is perceived as a significant problem for its owners, who tend to dedicate substantial financial resources either for waste storage or for its disposal. The lack of appropriate hazardous waste storage solutions and escalating costs of storage seem to be other complications. Moreover, waste-related regulations specify that not all types of waste can be directly stored. What should we do with the waste stored for y...

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E D U R - Multiphase Pumps Innovative Pump Techniques for Handling of Liquid-Gas Mixtures and for Generation of Dispersions

The typical purpose of centrifugal pumps is the transport of pure liquids. However, this ideal application is not often found under real working conditions. In many cases the pumps also have to transport undissolved gas or vapor. The reasons for this may be inadequate installation, like slight leakages in the suction pipe lines, or insufficient liquid levels above the inflow of the suction pipe line in open systems etc. On the other hand, process-bounded requirements must be considered when pres...

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Ultrasonic Algae Control Without Chemicals - George Hutchinson

In the 1890’s it was discovered that loud sounds could stop a blue-green algae bloom in its tracks. However, even then most people thought that dynamite was a little extreme for algae control! Then in the early 1920’s during the experimentation that produced sonar, Paul Langevin discovered that these same types of algae were disabled by ultrasound, though most likely due to the very powerful nature of the sonar pulse that created cavitation. Then in the 1970’s it was discovered that gas vesicle...

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Time To Wake Up To Progress In Odour Technology - Odour Services International Ltd

As social and economical views on the environment and the way in which we treat our waste are becoming a part of common culture, within the public arena, the importance of odour control is coming to the fore. It can be seen by the increased interest by both Governmental bodies and the media that the issue of odour control is now more apparent. The Introduction of IPPC across a variety of sectors has already led to an increased interest in odour control and this was amplified with the release of...

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ABB Process Makes Oily Wastewater Clean Again - Marco Apicella, Nunzio Bonavita, Paolo Capelli, Raimondo Cianfruglia

ABB has developed a new water treatment technology that cleans oily wastewater – by far the largest waste product in oil and gas production - quickly, cost-effectively and energy-efficiently, ready for discharge with zero environmental impact. The Solution Developed on behalf of a leading national oil and gas company, the solution is installed at three oil and gas fields in North Africa where it has achieved some remarkable results and exceeded the customer’s targets in terms of the quality of...

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Closing the Loop in the Industrial Water Cycle

Concerns about the environment and the sustainability of the earth’s natural resources have accelerated rapidly to the forefront of global interest. In the midst of a global financial crisis, industrial manufacturing and processing operations are being confronted with the challenge of striking a balance between the environmental impacts of their activities and making a profit. The origins of the global mega-trend of sustainable development can be traced back to the Brundtland Commission’s repor...

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Cleaning up the Avenue Coking Works

In September 2009 the remediation of the Avenue Coking Works in Derbyshire, England, started in earnest. Within sight of Chesterfield’s famous crooked spire is the former Avenue coking works often tagged as one of Europe’s most contaminated sites. VSD – a consortia of Volker Stevin, Sita Remediation and specialist environmental contractor DEC – will tackle the many challenges its remediation poses and return the remediated site to the local community as a multi use facility. The Avenue site is...

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Retractable Odor Control Covers Improve Access to Wastewater Tanks at San Francisco Bay Sanitation Plant

The Vallejo Sanitation & Flood Control District, in the San Francisco Bay area, has been engaged in a program to scrub off-gas odors from all aspects of its wastewater treatment plant. Early in the project, the district had covered all of the facilities in its headworks and primary treatment steps to control off-gas. Later, it developed a novel approach for the management and disposal of its biosolids, including designing a specialised hopper for storage of the plant’s dewatered solids and an au...

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A Novel Biological Approach for Treatment of Stripped-Sour Water

Crude oil containing sulfur, often in the form of hydrogen sulfide, in excess of 1%, is referred to as sour crude oil. Refineries that process sour crude oil generate sour water in multiple ways. The processes of desalting, fractional distillation in atmospheric or vacuum towers, cracking in thermal or catalytic units, and hydrodesulfurization (HDS) all contribute to a sour water by-product. Other significant sour water contaminants include ammonia, phenol and cyanide. The first level of treatm...

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New Environmentally Friendly Enzyme Based Solution for Wastewater Remediation

The effluent generated by livestock at agricultural operations all over both North and South America has a significant environmental footprint that flows far downstream from its source. Most notably present in these effluents, or agricultural runoffs, are manure and urine as well as other contaminants resulting from the continuous requirements and byproducts of livestock production. The increased global population has meant an increased demand for food and a subsequent high demand for livestock...

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Solve Your Nitrogen Problems

Nitrogen pollution is a major issue causing eutrophication of fresh water systems. The member states of the EU, as well as most of the developed non-EU countries have, over the past few decades, introduced various programmes to reduce the amount of nitrogen entering their systems, mostly in terms of gradually tightening of wastewater discharge limits. Municipal as well as industrial wastewater treatment plants have found themselves facing the challenge to meet these strict limits using tradition...

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Clean Dirt, No Doubt! (Eh?) Canada`s Nelson Environmental Remediation Treats its Business with Heat and Home Grown Values

Clean Dirt, No Doubt! Indeed. With a distinctive Northern Canadian accent and a complimentary penchant for hard work, these words resound in the minds of brothers Darryl and Warren Nelson, President and Vice- President respectively, of their contaminated soil-cleaning business, Nelson Environmental Remediation Ltd. (NER). Clean Dirt, No Doubt! is, after all, the Company?s tagline and guiding mission for this Edmonton, Canadabased environmental solutions business, one that has been...

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Nitrate Problems are Soluble - but Who Pays?

Nitrate pollution in rivers, lakes, reservoirs and underground aquifers is a major problem. However, researchers from Belgium, Malta, Poland, and the UK have developed a new low cost, environmentally friendly technology, known as \\\\\\\'NITRABAR\\\\\\\' which substantially removes nitrate from groundwater. The project is an EC LIFE Environment Project that demonstrates the remediation of agricultural diffuse NITRAte polluted waters through the implementation of a permeable reactiv...

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Effective Drinking Water Disinfection - an Assessment of Chlorine-based Methods

The need for drinking water disinfection is as old as public water supply itself. Microbiological parameters for drinking water treatment include coliform bacteria and specific pathogenic species of bacteria, vira, and protozoan parasites. Although the objective is the same ? to provide safe clean water ? the methods used to do so are numerous. The most common methods for water disinfection are chemical ones. This article gives a brief overview of chlorine-based disinfection method...

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Sustainable Solution for Phosphate and Ammonium Removal

Over the past years, the ANAMMOX? system demonstrated successfully to be a simple and robust method for nitrogen removal, without the need of a carbon source and reducing energy costs by 50%. The PHOSPAQ process removes phosphate from the effluent by formation of struvite, which is a valuable fertiliser. The combination of these two processes is an effective and sustainable solution for removing N and P from waste water, at low total cost of ownership. How does it work in practice? This article...

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Cleanup of the Lower Fox River in Wisconsin, USA: The world’s largest sediment remediation project

The successful involvement in the Miami River remediation project (2005 ? 2008) inspired Boskalis Dolman to further strengthen its market position in the USA. Before final completion of phase 2 of the project in Miami, agreement was reached about the world\\’s largest sediment remediation project: Cleanup of the Lower Fox River Operable Units 2-5. This is a multi-year project involving the processing of almost 3 million m3 of contaminated dredged material. One of the major advantages of the Bosk...

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Industrial Wastewater Disposal

There are several reasons why a company would choose to modify their current approach to waste water disposal or treatment, says Jacqualine Ingram, Senior Operations Engineer at Farrer (UK). In the UK wastewater disposal and treatment is paid for in one of three ways: ?By discharging to the public sewerage system and thereafter paying the regional water authority to deal with the waste ?By paying a specialist company to take the waste away and manage it ?By treating it to a high en...

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Innovative Applications of Fiberglass Reinforced Plastics for Process Water Pretreatment

Traditionally reverse osmosis systems are designed with pretreatment systems to control fouling of the membranes, maintain performance of the membranes, and lower the cost of cleaning the membranes. The pretreatment system extends the life of the membranes which in part will lower the overall total cost of operating the seawater reverse osmosis system.

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