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04.2011
ERT Asked to Speak at the Water Environment Association of Utah Conference

Earth Renaissance Technologies' CEO, Marcus Theodore, was asked to speak at the April 2011 Water Environment Association of Utah conference. Marcus spoke about the numerous advantages the Biobrimstone™ wastewater treatment system provides, particularly in regard to irrigation with saline recovered wastewater as an inexpensive disposal solution. Bill Atkin, ERT's Certified Golf Course Superintendant, also spoke about the finer points of the Biobrimstone™ application in regard to maintaining golfing greens.

The conference concluded with a "prestigious" induction ceremeony for the newest member of WEAU's Royal Flush Club and Marcus received a special award for speaking.

Click here to view the slides from the presentation.

WEAU Conference Check-In Desk


The Prestigious Toilet Mug Was Awarded to Conference Speakers	WEAU Royal Flush Club Induction Ceremony



01.2011 Recent Developments
ERT has developed a new hybrid chemical/biological wastewater treatment system to produce treated wastewater suitable for open stream discharge as an alternative to its soil aquifer treatment and land application systems. By combining ERT’s Biobrimstone™ chemical disinfection, heavy metals, phosphates, and suspended solids removal pretreatment with the open pond BioDomes™ produced by Wastewater Compliance Systems using bacterial removal of nitrogen and BOD’s produces a treated wastewater suitable for open stream discharge results. Both these combined systems have low capital and operating costs, are fully automated, and operator friendly using nature’s “organic” chemicals and bacteria. ERT has just received its sixth patent, entitled “Method and Apparatus to Reduce Wastewater Treatment Plant Footprint and Costs”, U.S. Patent No. 7,867,398 issued 1/15/2011 using supersaturated sulfur dioxide to speed disinfection and reduce WWTP footprints. Click here to view it. ERT to employ HSI Automated Self Igniting, pH controlled Sulfur Burner. ERT will employ the new HSI automated self igniting, pH regulated Sulfur Burner designed by John Harmon for its Montalvo PPCP (Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products) tests. This new automated sulfur burner is computer controlled and reduces the need to monitor the sulfur burn rate to achieve a given process pH.
Field Applications:
ERT currently has two exciting new opportunities it is actively pursuing:
ERT Teams Up with Bio-Dome™ Company to Apply for U.S. DOD Research Funding Earth Renaissance Technologies, LLC (ERT) and Wastewater Compliance Systems, Inc (WCS), both Salt Lake City based companies, recently co-applied for research funding from the United States Department of Defense to produce a mobile wastewater treatment system combining each company's technologies to treat and reclaim combined black and gray wastewater for open stream discharge. ERT will provide the chemical component by using its Biobrimstone™ wastewater treatment method, which uses low-cost, non-hazardous raw materials to disinfect, remove heavy metals and minimize salinity in a significantly reduced amount of time.		Image courtesy of WCS, www.wastewater-compliance-systems.com
WCS will provide a biological component through application of their patented submerged, aerated bio-reactors called Bio-Domes™. Bio-Domes™ are six foot wide hemispheres that are submerged on the bottom of lagoon system ponds. They use a continuous source of air to oxygenate, micro-mix and scrub bio-films and are constructed to prevent algae growth. When used in combination, this hybrid chemical/biological approach provides an economical, energy-efficient, rapidly deployable wastewater treatment system that can easily be scaled larger or smaller to accommodate a variety of community and military needs.

ERT in Final Approval Stage to Test Removal of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCP’s) from Wastewater
ERT is awaiting final permission the LA Regional Water Quality Control Board to test the effectiveness of its BiobrimstoneTM pre-treatment retrofit of the Montalvo Municipal Improvement District’s sequential batch reactors in Ventura, California to remove pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) from its influent. The tests will evaluate the effectiveness of ERT’s hybrid chemical/biological dewatering and disinfection wastewater treatment technology to inactivate, degrade, and remove a number of PPCPs in wastewater influent. This ERT wastewater treatment technology entails an oxidation/reduction, acidification/alkalinization cycle to sequentially remove PPCPs through filtration after acidification solids agglomeration of polar molecules, acid and basic hydrolosis, oxidation and reduction to produce a conditioned recovered wastewater more suitable to grow aquatic photo biomass to further inactive, degrade, and remove those susceptible pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
If approved, ERT will be able to assist a growing number of communities throughout the world plagued by this 21st century contamination problem.Pharmaceuticals in wastewater streams have become a cause for concern as pharmaceuticals and their metabolites have been established as nearly ubiquitous environmental pollutants in ground and surface waters. Chemicals used everyday in homes, industry and agriculture can enter the environment in wastewater. Unfortunately, there are thousands of different chemicals entering a wastewater treatment system, the composition of which constantly changes. These chemicals include human and veterinary drugs (including antibiotics), hormones, detergents, disinfectants, plasticizers, fire retardants, insecticides, and antioxidants. (USCG Fact Sheet FS-027-092, Pharmaceuticals, Hormones, and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in U.S. Streams, June 2002, Background). The shear number of the different types of chemicals, their low concentrations, and continually changing makeup makes the design of wastewater treatment systems to remove the same, impractical. For example, if a wastewater treatment system is designed for removal of a particular chemical, manufacturers may cease producing the product, or alter its composition to accelerate decomposition, rendering the design useless. Further, it is very difficult to test the effectiveness of a wastewater treatment system to remove all of these chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Most small wastewater treatment facilities do not have the necessary laboratory testing equipment or the skilled personnel to operate the same so testing is problematic. Consequently, most wastewater treatment plants are limited to providing primary and secondary treatment. If successful, ERT’s Biobrimstone™ pre-treatment for PPCP removal, would provide an inexpensive alternative to reverse osmosis.



10.2010 Earth Renaissance Technologies, LLC Featured in October 2010 Edition of Treatment Plant Operator
A New Approach: In this insightful article, Ted Rulseh of TPO interviews Montalvo Municipal Improvement District's Plant Operator Stan Rusk and ERT Managing Partner Terry Gong about Earth Renaissance Technologies' use of effluent acidification to *double* the rate of groundwater infiltration for soil aquifer treatment and reduce percolation pond maintenance. Click the image below to read the full article.



05.2010
The Montalvo Municipal Improvement District (MMID) invited Earth Renaissance Technologies, LLC (ERT) to attend a workshop on May 14, 2010 as a featured presenter to explain how its Biobrimstone™ soil aquifer treatment method doubled ground water infiltration rates of MMID’s wastewater soil aquifer treatment system over the last year and a half.



02.2010
The Multi-State Salinity Coalition asked Earth Renaissance Technologies, LLC (ERT) to submit five poster panel presentations addressing various applications of its Biobrimstone™ recovered wastewater treatment method at its 2010 Annual Salinity Summit on Water and Energy: Preparing for Global Impacts held February 18th and 19th, 2010, at the Monte Carlo Hotel, Casino and Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada. The purpose of the summit was to provide information that focuses on finding the balance between water and energy costs and how local and regional agencies can respond to these challenges. Topics of discussion included wastewater treatment plant carbon footprint modeling, desalination, salinity management, source control, environmental concerns, the energy/water nexus, applied research, innovative technologies, brackish water and ocean water desalination, recycled water desalination, and project implementation. ERT distributed technical papers explaining how its Biobrimstone™ treatment can solve some of these problems by inactivating pharmaceuticals and chemicals in wastewater streams, and improving ground water infiltration rates for wastewater soil aquifer treatment systems. It also presented poster presentations discussing brine management, use of recycled wastewater for agriculture, urban and rural water supply to generate carbon credits, desalination of agricultural drainage water, salinity management options based on irrigation methods, and the cost of salinity control and who pays for it.



09.2009
The Multi-State Salinity Coalition asked Earth Renaissance Technologies, LLC (ERT) to submit five poster panel presentations addressing various applications of its Biobrimstone™ recovered wastewater treatment method at its Water Supply, Agriculture and Salinity Management Workshop, September 29-30, 2009, at the Esmeralda Resort and Spa in Indian Wells, California. The purpose of this workshop was to provide all those interested in water supply, agriculture and salinity management an opportunity to network with their colleagues. Topics of discussion included brine management, use of recycled water for agriculture, urban and rural water supply, desalination of agricultural drainage water, salinity management options based on irrigation methods, and the cost of salinity control and who is paying for it. Shown below are attendees viewing some of these posters.



10.2006
Beginning in October 2006, ERT's Biobrimstone™ wastewater treatment technology was originally tested and evaluated at the Montalvo Municipal Improvement District Facility and the Saticoy-Jose Florez Treatment Facility (Saticoy) owned and operated by the Saticoy Sanitary Improvement District (SSD) by a team of diverse experts, including plant operators, a professional engineer in wastewater, a chemist/regulatory patent attorney, a financial analyst, an agricultural sulfurous acid generator manufacturer and their treated irrigation water field representatives in both the golf course arena and agricultural community, a polymer bag solids separation engineer, and an agronomist. As a result of this extensive testing effort, a package wastewater treatment system was developed, which was odorless, and produced disinfected and demetalized wastewater free of perchlorates and many pharmaceuticals suitable for land application. After reviewing the plant operator needs of the Montalvo Municipal Improvement District Facility, ERT was recently retained to enhance Montalvo's soil aquifer treatment (SAT) system impoundments to recharge the aquifer with acidified disinfected recycled municipal wastewater until a user for the recovered treated wastewater is located. This Biobrimstone™ groundwater treatment will deodorize the ponds, and acidify the treated wastewater to continually open soil pores for better water recharging penetration, and reduce annual maintenance costs. ERT holds key patents on this technology and has accumulated additional related water treatment technology for all types of water, all of which are the subject of pending patent applications.