Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. (“Ostara”), whose technology enables water and sewage companies to recover phosphorus and other nutrients from wastewater and recycle them into an environmentally-safe commercial fertiliser, has opened the first waste water treatment facility in the U.S. to incorporate its technology on a commercial scale.
The Portland, Oregon-based Clean Water Services’ Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility is a public/private partnership between Clean Water Services, a water resource management utility, and Ostara. CleanWater Services will own and operate the reactor, profiting from significant operational cost savings, and will share revenue with Ostara from the commercial sale of the fertiliser by-product, to be marketed throughout Oregon and the Pacific Northwest by Ostara under the brand name Crystal Green.
Crystal Green is an ideal product for turf (golf courses) markets, container nurseries, speciality agriculture and other markets that can benefit from using slow-release fertilisers. The product’s slow release characteristics provide a source of phosphorus that will not leach into the water table.
Phillip Abrary, President and CEO of Ostara, said waste water treatment systems have typically a major pipe clogging problem. They separate sewage sludge solids from liquids and while treated solids can be recycled as soil amendments, the liquids are usually reprocessed back through the system. In addition to clogging pipes it also adds significant cost to the system, consuming up to 25 percent of the system's capacity.
"Our technology integrates into the treatment system, processes the sludge liquids and recovers phosphorus and other nutrients - and then converts them into a high-quality environmentally friendly commercial fertiliser that can generate revenue for the local utility," said Abrary.
The Clean Water Services’ Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility is projected to remove more than 90 percent of the phosphorus in the wastewater and produce 500 tons of fertiliser annually. Clean Water Services anticipates operational cost savings of approximately $500,000 a year from incorporating Ostara’s technology.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the prominent environmental lawyer and a Director of Ostara, commented: “The incorporation of the Ostara technology is the kind of infrastructure solution needed in hundreds of municipalities across the United States. Local and state governments should take note that the win-win benefits of improved economics and reduced environmental impact achieved here can be replicated throughout the United States.”
The company estimates that approximately 200 plants in North America and several hundred plants in Europe and the rest of the world are candidates for the Ostara technology.
In addition to funding from North American investment group VantagePoint Venture Partner, Ostara is backed by the London-based Cleantech and ICT growth capital investor Frog Capital.
Abrary added: “Frog Capital have given us the opportunity to broaden our reach beyond the US and Canada. The Frog team has helped us with our strategic direction as well as important introductions, helping Ostara gain a foothold in the UK and Europe.”
Iyad Omari, who leads Frog Capital’s cleantech investments, said: “We are pleased with the progress Ostara has made, which endorses our strategy of investing in companies that find new business models or profitable solutions to a current problem. It’s not just about technology innovation, but about creating a new business model or a business for a certain need or requirement.”
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For further information, please contact:
Sally Brown or Chantal Ligertwood, PR for Frog Capital
07917 091 782 sally@ligertwood.net / 07976 229 210 chantal@ligertwood.net
and visit www.frogcapital.com
NOTE TO EDITORS
About Frog Capital
Frog Capital was founded in 2005 as Foursome Investments. The firm has made seven investments in cleantech of which one has been partially exited. Investments include SIG Processing AG, a German-based business recycling key elements from semiconductor and solar panel production, which has doubled its revenues every year since 2006; Solar Century, the UK’s best-known solar energy company; Ostara, whose technology enables water and sewage companies to recycle phosphorus avoiding the use of harmful chemicals and Hydrodec, which recycles transformer oil for a market that throws away 300m litres of used transformer oil a year. Hydrodec is currently opening sites across the USA.
About Crystal Green
Crystal Green is the only slow-release fertiliser on the market with a combination of nitrogen, phosphorus and magnesium (5-28-0 +10% Mg). Crystal Green is environmentally sustainable, cost-effective for distributors and end-users and proven safe by numerous U.S. universities — including Oregon State University. Crystal Green was approved for use as a fertiliser by the Oregon Department of Agriculture in 2008 and is being marketed throughout Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Crystal Green is an ideal product for turf (golf courses) markets, container nurseries, specialty agriculture and other markets that value slow-release fertilisers. The product’s slow release characteristics provide a source of phosphorus that will not leach into the water table.
About Clean Water Services
Clean Water Services is a water resource management utility in urban Washington County, Oregon providing innovative wastewater and stormwater services for more than 500,000 residents. Clean Water Services operates four wastewater treatment facilities; constructs and maintains flood management and water quality projects; manages flow in the Tualatin River; and coordinates regional water supply planning. The Durham Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility cleans more than 20 million gallons a day of flow from the cities of Beaverton, Tigard, Sherwood, Tualatin, Durham and King City, and portions of Clackamas and Multnomah Counties. In 2005, the U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency named the Durham Facility the best operated and maintained advanced wastewater treatment plant in the nation. For more information, visit the website at www.cleanwaterservices.org.
About Ostara
Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc., founded in 2005, is a Vancouver-based company commercializing proprietary technologies that recover resources from wastewater and recycle them into valuable products. Ostara's struvite recovery process, developed at the University of British Columbia, recovers pollutants that would otherwise be released into the environment, helps wastewater treatment plants reduce operating costs and meet environmental regulations, and provides municipalities and utilities with revenue from the sale of the recovered pollutants that are recycled into environmentally safe slow-release fertilizer, Crystal Green®. For more information: visit www.ostara.com and www.crystalgreen.com.