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Applied Process Technology, Inc. Announces Option To License Perchlorate Removal Technology From Northwestern University
PLEASANT HILL, CALIFORNIA - July 29, 2003 - APPLIED PROCESS TECHNOLOGY, INC. ("Applied") announced its plans to license an innovative hollow fiber membrane biofilm reactor technology from Northwestern University ("Northwestern ").
The hydrogen-based membrane biofilm reactor ("MBfR") removes a host of toxic compounds from contaminated water by converting them to innocuous products, not by concentrating them as waste by-products. The MBfR utilizes naturally occurring bacteria that reduce the contaminants to innocuous forms when they are fed hydrogen gas. The MBfR is particularly effective for removing nitrate and perchlorate, a chemical used primarily as a rocket fuel or propellant. Perchlorate has become a great concern because it has been detected in a growing number of drinking water sources in California, has been reported in the water supplies of 20 states across the US, and is not easily removed by traditional treatment methods, such as filtration, carbon adsorption, and air stripping systems. Perchlorate has had adverse health impacts even when present at very low concentrations (1 ppb to 4 ppb).
Under its Option Agreement with Northwestern , Applied will continue its evaluation and scale-up potential of the MBfR, which has been demonstrated to effectively reduce a wide variety of compounds in bench-scale and pilot-scale applications, for use at full-scale treatment sites. Applied then plans to license and fully commercialize the technology.
Terry Applebury, president and CEO of Applied, stated, "This technology is ground-breaking and will enable Applied to offer an extremely valuable solution to the nation's perchlorate problem and a host of other water contamination issues, including nitrate removal. The MBfR compliments our superior line of HiPOxT advanced oxidation treatment systems and supports our mission to deliver creative, integrated, cost-effective, waste-free solutions and services to our customers."
The MBfR has immediate applications as a remediation technology, shows promise for treatment of industrial process waters, and is expected to qualify as a drinking water treatment technology. It has also shown great potential for treating concentrated waste streams from ion exchange and reverse osmosis systems, both of which produce waste concentrates that require decontamination.Dr. Bruce Rittmann, a professor of Environmental Engineering at Northwestern and a co-inventor of the biofilm reactor, remarked, "The MBfR developed at Northwestern has shown a tremendous capacity to reduce waterborne contaminants in laboratory-scale tests. We believe that this technology can be configured for larger scale, commercial applications and are pleased that Applied has taken an interest in its further development."
Mr. Applebury also remarked, "Our existing HiPOx technology also is a destructive technology and is extremely effective for the treatment of chemicals that respond to advanced oxidation chemistries. The MBfR developed at Northwestern is a reductive technology and is able to destroy contaminants that cannot be oxidized. Together these two very different treatment solutions will enable Applied to address a vast range of contaminant issues at a given treatment site without generating waste concentrates."
Applied Process Technology, Inc. (www.aptwater.com) provides technically superior pump-and-treat and in-situ water treatment solutions and services to the drinking water and environmental remediation markets. Applied specializes in treatment technologies that do not generate by-products or waste streams. Its first two product lines, HiPOxT and VadoZone, are based on advanced oxidation and chemical oxidation processes that use ozone and hydrogen peroxide to destroy a wide variety of contaminants including MTBE, TBA, and 1,4-dioxane.
Applied Process Technology, Inc. is currently seeking opportunities to perform pilot demonstrations using the MBfR technology. Interested parties or those who wish to receive additional information should contact Mr. Steven Van Yoder of Get The Word Out Communications at (415) 931-7323 or on his cell phone at (415) 218-3075.
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