Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Solutions

December 2012
Sustainable Wastewater Treatment
Solutions
José M. González
VP Business Development Latin America & Brazil

Clearford Industries Inc.
• Canadian company headquartered in Ottawa (Ontario)
• 20+ year corporate history
• Public company trading on CDNX (Canadian Venture Exchange)
• Design & implementation of a patented, at source sewage digestion and
effluent transport systems
• Turnkey design & delivery of end-to-end wastewater collection and treatment
solutions
• Delivery model through partnerships with leading, in-country engineering
expertise
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Applying Canadian innovation to a world-wide issue
• Ministry of the Environment (Ontario)
• New Environmental Technology Evaluation Program (NETE)
• World Bank (UN Development Program)
• “The design of Small Bore Sewer systems” (Interregional Project INT/81/047)
• US Environmental Protection Agency
• Alternative Wastewater Collection Systems Manual
• EPA/625/1-91/024 – October 1991
SBS sewer: a proven & certified process
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A strong focus on innovation
• Robust patent portfolio securing IP
protection for Distributed Primary
Processing of raw sewage, and efficient
effluent transport piping network design
• “Small Bore Sewer System”, the core
SBS sewer technology
– 2 issued patents
• “High Performance Sewer System”, next
generation SBS
– 3 issued patents
– 11 pending patent applications
Water
purification and
recycling
Sewage
Treatment
Domestic and
Industrial
Water Use
Transportation
of Effluent
Collection of
Raw Sewage
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Historic sewers & their shortfalls

Issues with conventional sewage collection
• Massive & expensive infrastructure projects, long lead time
• Disruption to surrounding environment, residents & local businesses
• Treatment plants must be oversized due to groundwater infiltration & inflow
• High maintenance cost to repair/replace lift stations and piping
• Potential surface/ground water contamination as a result of overflow
discharge
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Issues with historic sewage collection in arid and developing regions
• With < 1/3 water use in water-scarce areas, traditional
gravity sewer service is technically unfeasible
– Insufficient effluent flow to convey solids to
sewage treatment plant
– Fresh water resources a priority for drinking water
and agricultural use
• Sewage handling is labor-intensive and inefficient
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Clearford SBS Wastewater Treatment
Solution
Overview and Benefits

Clearford SBS Wastewater Treatment Solution
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Clearford SBS Wastewater Treatment Solution
• New developments seeking an environmentally-sustainable approach to
wastewater management
• Water-scarce regions
• Communities with unreliable water distribution networks
• Existing communities requiring new servicing or wastewater network
expansion
• Communities with variable wastewater flow
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Efficient wastewater treatment - key component of green
community design
• Less water required compared to traditional gravity-based sewage systems
• Robust, sealed effluent transmission network and flow attenuation
– reduces instances of system bypass and overflow discharge
• Optimized sewage treatment plant
– lower and consistent wastewater flows
– lower resource use in construction
– lower long-term energy use
• Flexible effluent transmission network design
– easily retrofits to existing community layout
– reduces disruption and potential loss of business and community
productivity during installation
• Supports opportunities for higher population density community design
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Lower life-cycle costs*
• Less frequent pump out schedules – 15+ years
• Fewer pump and lift stations to run and maintain
• 90-year lifespan of piping network
• Reduced system intervention requirements for pipe blockage remediation
• Optimized treatment plant design for low-solids effluent processing
– lower energy use
– reduced human resource (staffing/expertise)
– lower maintenance and reduced sludge handling.
The Clearford system will be operating efficiently decades after
installation in environments that can ill-afford to waste scarce
water resources to simply flush solids through the wastewater
collection system.
*Compared to conventional gravity-based sewers
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Clearford SBS Wastewater Treatment
Solution
Technical Functionality

Clearford SBS Wastewater Treatment Solution
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Distributed Primary Processing
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Sludge Digestion Efficiency
Hydraulic Mixing in Septic Tanks (Left) and Clearford Digester Tank (Right)
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Flow Attenuation
Hydraulic Retention Time
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Low-solids effluent transport network
• HDPE piping material
• Small-diameter main lines (up to 75-mm where possible)
• Strength: 90-year design life
• Flexibility: 1 roll = 350 m ; bent radius = 25 x diameter
• Thermally-fused connection: eliminates groundwater inflow
and sewage leaching to the environment
• Resiliency: malleable material well suited for drilling around,
over or under obstacles
• Piping installation
• Two options:
• open cut - small, shallow trenches, no need for heavy
equipment, use of local labour & hand tools
• trenchless - horizontal directional drilling, fast installation,
minimal surface disruption & impact on the environment
• Sealed HDPE piping: common trench for water, sewage , reuse
• Reduced bedding , reduced excavation
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Piping network maintenance
• Vertical extensions of the HDPE
main sewer system for
maintenance access & air flow
– No scheduled maintenance
of the pipe network for the
life of the system
– Routine maintenance for lift
stations (only installed when
hydraulic gradient dictates)
• Located at 150-m spacing and at
critical intersections along the
sewer routing
• Housing of high-grade, durable
HDPE ribbed culvert material
with a secured CI bolt-on lid
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SBS TM Advantage: Shallow Slope Piping
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Excavation Volume, [m3/m]
SBS TM Advantage: Shallow Bury Trenches
• Trenching costs is one of the largest part of collection system installation costs
• Trenching volume exponential to depth,
costs increase exponential with a deeper installation
• Additionally, trenching is more dangerous
deeper excavation => more costs to protect workers
Illustration of Exponential Excavation Volumes in Respect to
Linear Excavation Depth, Representative of Costs
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Excavation Depth, [m]
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Operations and Maintenance
Advantages
Comparing Systems

Process comparison
Parameter
Historic
sewer
SBS TM
sewer
Effluent flow (L/c.d) 350 200
Design peak factor 4 2
Inflow & Infiltration
(L/s.ha)
Min. scouring velocity
(m/s)
Min. hydraulic gradient
(%)
0.28 0
0.6 0.15
2 0.11
BOD 5
(mg/L) 250 120
TSS (mg/L) 190 40
TKN (mg/L) 35 30
TP (mg/L) 7 6
Compared to historic sewers, the SBS sewer provides wastewater
collection servicing with superior operational & environmental performance
at a fraction of the cost (often >½)
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Clearford’s Advantage
SBS Collection & Treatment
SBS TM
Distributed primary treatment
.11% slope
Fewer/no pumping stations
Enables small flexible pipe use
Historic Gravity Collection & Treatment
Concentrated Primary Treatment
2% slope
Frequent & large pumping
Requires large, ridged piping
Sealed Pipe Network
Zero inflow/outflow
90+ year lifespan
Jointed Pipe Network
Inflows that can be as much as original
sewage volume
Treatment Plant Operating $ Treatment Plant Operating $
No solids, no inflow volume
Up to 2-4x the size of plant required for SBS
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Savings analysis:
SBS vs. Conventional sewer
Equipment & labour
Operation & Maintenance
Treatment costs
lower excavation costs Lower power (gravity discharge) Lower land acquisition capital
Inexpensive, small Ø piping Lower R&R (sealed piping, clean effluent) Smaller lift stations
No man hole & compact SAP Bio-solids conversion efficiency
Smaller end-of-pipe treatment
Faster installation
Local labour & hand tools
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With the SBS sewer system, we challenge conventional wisdom
Thank you!