case studies

Faced with municipal sewer discharge limits on phosphorous, Coca-Cola requested a pilot study. The mobile EC test trailer was parked alongside the effluent management facility with minimal disruption. The Rigby System effectively reduced the effluent phosphorous concentration to below the permit limit. While on site, Coca-Cola requested a second study on the ultra-filtration reject water. The Rigby System efficiently removed the trace concentration of copper to non-detect level.

Butler’s Commercial Laundry facility was spending $1 million a year to purchase fresh water, and was also facing an industrial sewer discharge fee for excessive COD. An on-site Rigby System pilot test demonstrated effective removal of both dirt and detergents allowing for a 50% recycle of water and a reduction in industrial discharge fees. Reductions in water consumption and sewer discharge fees resulted in a return on investment in less than two years. 

Electro-Chemistry was engaged through a competitive federal procurement procedure to demonstrate the Rigby System technology for potential use in neutralizing and treating acid mine drainage. Testing performed at Gold King Mine 7 tunnel demonstrated the effectiveness of the technology for oxidizing and reducing the concentration of a wide range of metals, including cadmium, lead, zinc, copper and iron. 

The groundwater in the Rio Chama river basin in northern New Mexico is characterized by low pH and extremely high concentrations of dissolved iron. In 2018 and 2019, pilot tests using the Rigby System were performed at the Milligan facility; they demonstrated a reduction in iron from 20 mg/L to less than 0.1 mg/L, well below the Federal Safe Drinking Water standard. In January 2020, a permanent Rigby System treatment system was installed at the Milligan Brand Ranch.

In 2018, the EPA procured a pilot test demonstration at the US Department of Energy Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, ID. Managed by Battelle, the Rigby System effectively removed diesel fuel, miscellaneous contaminants and coliforms. The EPA, DOE and Battelle team called the technology “magic” since it produces water clearer than in outer space. Based on test results, in February 2020, the EPA purchased a Rigby System treatment system and installed it at the Environmental and Test Laboratory in Cincinnati, OH.

In 2010, the MOD issued an international tender for new water treatment technologies for potential use at their forward operating bases (FOB). The Rigby System was selected to treat graywater for the purpose of recycling. 70% of FOB water is graywater. During the MOD Climate Day technology demonstration in March 2013, the Rigby System outperformed both General Dynamics and Watergen, and was selected by MOD as their preferred water technology.

 In response to pressure from the EPA, Royal Caribbean engaged a pilot testing program to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Rigby System for treating high strength cruise ship wastewater. Raw wastewater samples were obtained from the Princess of the Seas cruise liner and tested at the George Washington University environmental laboratory. The Rigby System effectively treated gray water, black water, mixed water and pulper water. 

This filter press specialist receives both organic and inorganic waste sludge from a wide variety of sources and processes it to reduce water concentration prior to shipping to Asia for further processing. An on-site pilot test demonstrated the effectiveness for enhanced sludge dewatering characteristics without the use of polymers or chemical coagulants. The study concluded the sludge treated using the Rigby System dewatered in half the time to twice the concentration of solids than the sludge treated with polymers and coagulants. 

In 2015, several pilot trials using the Rigby System were run on a wide variety of wastewater samples from oil and gas drilling operations. Test sites included a Complete Production centralized frack water collection in Gainesville, and treatment facility at an Endeavor Energy deep well disposal site in Midlands and on a drilling mud waste lagoon in Alvin. In every test, electro-chemical reactions for separation of oil and sediment were instantaneous and effective. 

GEMS accepts bilge and ballast water from both commercial ships and cruise liners arriving at Corpus Christi. Traditionally, it separated oils before disposing the water into the municipal sewer system. In response to a request to improve the wastewater quality, the Rigby System demonstrated enhanced separation of the oil and sediments from the wastewater to levels satisfactory to the city for disposal into the public sewer system.

Slaughtering operations produce large amounts of blood, solids, fats, oils and grease. The standard practice is to screen out coarse solids; add a metal-based cationic coagulant and an anionic polymer to achieve coagulation; and remove the flocculated solids using a dissolved air flotation system. Instead, at Peco Chicken in EC removed blood, FOG and organics from slaughtering wastewater without polymers to produce high-quality rendering byproducts.

USES receives industrial wastewater byproducts from a variety of sources. In the case of an acetylene manufacturing facility in Alabama, the production facility had been unable to process the elemental carbon clarifier sludge to achieve any measure of dewatering. The Rigby System effectively achieved separation of carbon solids from water amounting to a 70% reduction in wet volume.

Provided with wastewater samples from hazardous wastewater storage tanks at the Motive Refinery, our client commissioned an EC pilot test on five-gallon samples. The Rigby System reduced ammonia and a wide variety of volatile organic compounds, plus BTEX.

Working with chemical company Lyondell Bassell, EC demonstrated the effectiveness of removing hardness in the cooling tower water by precipitating out calcium and other cations from the water. 

Disposal of landfill leachate has become a huge national problem, and most municipalities will no longer accept it  into their treatment systems. Landfill lagoons require large areas of land and are affected by rainfall and seasonal temperature fluctuations.  As demonstrated in Warrenton, VA, Electro-Chemistry is a sustainable solution. In this project, EC removed dissolved ferric iron and reduced organics from landfill leachate to levels suitable for aerobic biological treatment.

In this Virginia study, EC was extensively tested and researched for the treatment of municipal domestic sewage. The Rigby System dissociates nitrates to effluent total nitrogen levels of 0.1 mg/L, precipitates phosphorous to similar levels and simultaneously achieves 100% kill of coliform bacteria. It can be used in place of a tertiary denitrification step and in lieu of chlorine or ozone for disinfection.