One
of the more popular chemical technologies today for industrial
wastewater treatment involves ionic exchange through polymer
flocculation. Under this slow process, a polymer is added to water and
through the resulting generation of positive and negative charges, the
polymer attaches to a toxic chemical. This leads to coagulation and the
resulting material rises or sinks for removal - a process that usually
takes a number of days.
While MYCELX is also a chemical process,
it works
instantly. MYCELX filters are successful after just a single, few-seconds exposure to
industrial wastewater.
MYCELX is also far superior to activated
carbon - adsorption technology which currently represents the most common process in industrial
wastewater treatment. Activated carbon, however, is effective only with specific compounds according
to their molecular size and water solubility.
It is least effective with organic compounds that are even slightly soluble
in water, which unfortunately covers the majority of natural and industrial-generated chemical wastes.
A supplemental technology used along with activated carbon is air
stripping, which is most effective with organic compounds that are
volatile in nature.
Consequently, air stripping fails to remove
compounds with very low vapor pressures.
Test Results
MYCELX has none of the limiting factors that hold back the most
common environmental technologies, and test results to date speak for
themselves.
MYCELX-infused filters can reduce 200ppb benzene, toluene,
ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) in water to below detectable limits (BDL)
in one single two-second pass. A MYCELX MX-4 filter can bring 38,000
gallons of 10ppb benzene in water to BDL in a single two-second pass.
A recently completed, independent test reported this past summer
(1998) at the Savannah, Ga.., terminal of one of the oldest and largest
tank transport lines in the United States - has convinced the company's
tank-cleaning division to pursue additional testing after adapting
MYCELX chemistry to its own filter equipment.
In the field test conducted with Savannah Laboratories &
Environmental Services, Inc., a wastewater sample containing
approximately one half-gram per liter of phenolics was reduced to 78
millionths of a gram - a magnitude reduction of nearly one million
times. Consequently, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) was reduced
significantly in the same sample from 405.1 mg./liter to 230 mg./liter.
Detectable levels of zinc were brought down by a third, while other
metals were all below detectable limits.
However, the most significant result of this initial trial was that
all tests were conducted with a single pass.
"There's nothing out there that can match these results in one
exposure," says Hilbig, "because this is not just another new and improved activated carbon.
We're talking about brand new
chemistry."
