Wastewater Remediation Technology

Ohio University invention called the GreenBox which is designed to clean commercial and agricultural wastewater and produce hydrogen energy.
01/09/2010 Ámbito: América (Noticia leida 126 veces)

EWP.-E3 Technologies, a new firm based in Athens, Ohio, will develop an Ohio University invention called the GreenBox which is designed to clean commercial and agricultural wastewater and produce hydrogen energy. Referred to as ‘pee power', the GreenBox converts ammonia and urea in wastewater to hydrogen, nitrogen and pure water.

The company, founded by the Ohio University faculty inventor of the technology Gerardine Botte, is a new tenant in the Innovation Center (the university's small high-tech business incubator). E3 recently licensed a suite of electrochemical devices and technologies developed by Botte to commercialise for the green energy market. ‘The GreenBox is the first of many products we'll be developing. I think we have the right team at the right time - energy and water issues are huge right now', said Botte, the chief technology officer for the company who also is a professor of biomolecular and chemical engineering at Ohio University.

E3 Technologies plans to develop the GreenBox for wastewater remediation and clean energy production. Through a patented low-energy electrolysis process, the GreenBox converts ammonia and urea in wastewater to hydrogen, nitrogen and pure water. The electric current in the device creates an electrochemical reaction that oxidises urea and turns it into carbon dioxide, which is then sequestered in the electrolyte material in the machine. The box also produces hydrogen energy.

‘It's a synergistic technology: by reducing emissions, you also get a free, clean source of energy. As the clean energy economy develops, this could provide an attractive energy source', said company CEO Kent Shields who has 30 years of experience in the energy field. ‘Urea electrolysis also could be used as an extremely efficient process for producing ammonia for selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions', he added. According to Shields, nitrogen oxide (NOx) is a particular problem in coal power plant and diesel exhaust.

The technology also could help a wide variety of industries (from the military and agriculture to wastewater treatment operations and commercial construction companies) deal with the disposal of ammonia, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be a serious environmental toxin. Ammonia in wastewater from agricultural, industrial and municipal sources impacts air quality, surface water and ground water.

Botte is hopeful that the invention could aid farmers, who often are faced with using or purchasing additional land to create lagoons for the large amount of animal waste from hogs or cattle subject to EPA regulations. A farmer with 2,000 hogs might need a GreenBox that runs on only 5 kilowatts of power - the same amount of power needed in an average home - to treat the ammonia waste, Botte said. A commercial building with 300 employees would need a unit that requires only 1 kilowatt to operate. The technology could reduce operational costs for eliminating ammonia from wastewater by 60%.

The company now plans to develop a larger-scale, commercial prototype of the GreenBox by the third quarter of 2011, Shields said. E3 plans to seek additional investors and grant funding. Although it's too early to predict how many jobs the company will support in southeast Ohio, Shields has said that ‘we anticipate being able to generate jobs that will attract people from different fields and education levels - from science and engineering to sales and marketing to manufacturing'.