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A warm welcome to our third Newsletter.
A Letter from Doug Kelley, President of IER
“As amazing, challenging, sobering, and enlightening as 2020 was, we have now made the turn and are off and running in 2021!
Actually, these are very exciting times in IER, primarily because we have taken what we’ve learned from the hard work of research and development in 2020 and have converted our manufacturing processes into the sale of new, world-class formulas for our AMALGAM Magnesium Hydroxide products!
By combining IER’s multiple years of chemistry, engineering, and operational experiences, along with strong guidance from our Calix partners in Australia, our team of dedicated professionals has reached new milestones in the development of formulations of magnesium hydroxide (AMALGAM-60, 60% Mg(OH)2) and blended alkaline additives (such as AMALGAM-55, blend of Mg and Ca hydroxides). These new formulations exhibit improved reactivity and settling stability with dramatically reduced viscosity, providing more reliable dosing under all wastewater application conditions.
In this newsletter, we are highlighting one of our key employees who played a central role in the development of these formulations. Interestingly, he is not a Ph.D. chemist, nor a degreed engineer (though he is getting close to that achievement!). Most importantly, he is a very curious person who is powerfully driven, each day looking to improve the efficiency of our processes and the effectiveness of our products. His passion to learn and succeed has resulted in his rise within our organization to a position of oversight into nearly every project we perform. I’m sure you’ll enjoy having the chance to meet him in this newsletter.
In our last newsletter I mentioned how we are rapidly expanding into the treatment of odor and corrosion in lift stations and collection systems. While this is not a new application for magnesium hydroxide, IER’s team is bringing a unique focus on this application in order to address the overall performance of the collection system, as well as the wastewater treatment plant at the end of the pipe. I am very excited to share in a future newsletter some very encouraging findings concerning the replacement of two hazardous chemicals with one nonhazardous AMALGAM product to completely mitigate collection system/lift station odor and corrosion, while simultaneously optimizing the alkalinity at the treatment plant for effective nutrient removal!
Finally, I want to wish all reading this newsletter the very best with the physical and mental health for yourself, your family members, and your co-workers. This past year brought stresses into each of our lives that we’ve simply never had to face before.
Keep looking out for each other – the light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter each day! “
HIGHLIGHTS
- Case study: An innovative mixed-metal hydroxide for pH control and wastewater microorganism activity
- Don’t be so caustic!
- Technical talk: “Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Odor & Alkalinity Control”
- Introducing Kevin Kohler, Project Engineer
Case study
An innovative mixed-metal hydroxide
for pH control and wastewater microorganism activity
A meat packing facility and tannery in the Midwest US, processing 2.5 millions gallons per day (MGD) of wastewater, with a NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit for discharge to a river, had been using both hydrated lime and magnesium hydroxide for 10 years to try and control pH in a low rate anaerobic digester.
Read moreWastewater chemistry 101
Don’t be so caustic!
Treating wastewater from food processing facilities can be so much safer, more environmentally friendly and more cost-effective thanks to a benign but extremely effective ingredient. Magnesium hydroxide ( Mg(OH)2 ) is much better than caustic soda for treating wastewater. Why aren’t its advantages better known?
Don’t be so caustic!Technical talk
Killing two birds with one stone: odor and alkalinity
This talk discusses the concept of using the collection system as a means to extend the treatment of wastewater beyond that of the traditional treatment plant. The discussion covers ideas to use simple chemical concepts to solve more than one problem with a single treatment.
Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Odor & Alkalinity ControlOur people
Introducing Kevin Kohler, Project Engineer
Kevin Kohler chose to serve his nation directly after leaving high school, joining the US Marine Corps, where he served as a mechanic, receiving extensive training in various areas of maintenance. He received numerous awards and commendations and served on several overseas deployments.
Introducing Kevin Kohler