Los Angeles, CA – March 16, 2016 – OriginClear Inc. (OTC/QB: OOIL), a leading provider of water treatment solutions, today announced that it has successfully developed and proven Advanced Oxidation for its breakthrough water cleanup system, Electro Water Separation™, or EWS. University laboratory tests have shown that EWS with Advanced Oxidation (EWS:AOx™) can now extract dissolved contaminants, which are otherwise difficult to remove without chemicals such as chlorine.
“We are now addressing more complex and challenging contaminants, particularly in China,” said Jean-Louis “JL” Kindler, President of OriginClear Technologies. “Adding Advanced Oxidation to our existing process is attractive in these markets. The expected treatment cost in most cases is below US$1 per treated ton of water.”
“For example, in China, we have been asked to clean up the ‘black water’ contaminants coming out of landfills, which can be so thick that they can clog up any filter,” Kindler continued. “We have shown that EWS:AOx can do the job, and I’m happy to report that we are now in the commercial negotiation phase after a successful demonstration.”
Landfills in China and elsewhere generate tens of thousands of tons of leachate daily. This leachate, also known as black water, is a major challenge in wastewater treatment. OriginClear is currently piloting its process for a landfill leachate treatment system in China.
Recent laboratory studies carried out by the Company in partnership with California State University at Bakersfield (CSU Bakersfield) have indicated the effectiveness of EWS:AOx, as measured by Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) generation. ROS are the strongest oxidants that can be used in water. Their confirmed presence indicates the degree to which the system is able to remove organics from water without chlorine-generated Disinfection Byproducts, which are considered harmful in a waste water treatment system.
“EWS already generates 370mg per second of gas, which is more than twice the amount needed for the removal by electro-flotation of a 2000 mg/l solids contents wastewater stream,” said Dr. Luis Edgar Cabrales Arriaga, assistant professor at the Department of Physics and Engineering at CSU Bakersfield. “Now, we have confirmed that EWS with Advanced Oxidation also produces more than 330 g/m3 of mixed ROS species, such as hydrogen peroxide, for a similar average energy consumption of 1 kWh per m3 of treated water.”
“We are grateful to Professor Cabrales and his team for these results, which demonstrate the system’s ability to remove a broader variety of organic species and a disinfection process that does not involve adding chlorine,” said Nicholas Eckelberry, OriginClear co-founder and inventor.
“EWS removes the oils and suspended organics that tend to clog up wastewater filters. As the first step of the treatment process, EWS:AOx will allow downstream filters and membranes to do their job better,” continued inventor Eckelberry. “Our technology can also treat dissolved organics, such as ammonia, phosphorus and hydrogen sulfide, which are difficult to remove. We’ve found that EWS:AOx delivers twice the functions in one system, for equivalent energy inputs.”
EWS has always featured electro-oxidation (EO), generated in the two hardware phases of the system, electro-coagulation (EC) and electro-flotation (EF). With Advanced Oxidation, the effect is intensified through a third hardware component, designed to generate ROS such as ozone, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyls. These can degrade virtually any contaminant found in water. Being solely composed of oxygen and hydrogen, they also introduce no additional hazardous element in the water, a major benefit for operators wanting to avoid HAZMAT logistics issues.
“The first two phases must occur before Advanced Oxidation, because they remove the oils and suspended solids that can neutralize the ROS that Advanced Oxidation generates,” explained Nicholas Eckelberry. “With the particles out of the water, Advanced Oxidation can be used to effectively target the remaining miscible, or dissolved, contaminants.”
This stage is also where AO can generate chlorine species to target specific soluble compounds such as ammonia, thus allowing finer control of the amount of generated disinfection byproducts.
Overall, the system has shown a dramatic reduction in Total Organic Compounds, which includes all forms of organic contamination, including miscible or dissolved solids, to meet new stringent global discharge requirements.
Even prior to this innovation, EWS, combined with an iSep ultrafiltration membrane, demonstrated up to a 99.9% removal of dispersed oil, 99.5% removal of suspended solids as well as successful treatment of chemical oxygen demand (COD), including specific contaminants such as ammonia, phosphorus and hydrogen sulfide. These results were presented at the International Water Conference in 2015.
OriginClear recently filed a provisional patent describing the new process and system configuration. The inventor is Nicholas Eckelberry.