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capacity of up to 10,000 tons of a high-value, continuous-release fertilizer product per year that will be marketed and sold as Crystal Green®. Every ton of Crystal Green produced will be purchased by Ostara, which will share the revenues with MWRD from the sale of Crystal Green to buyers in the turf and agriculture markets; the MWRD expects the revenue to exceed operational costs. In addition, the facility will benefit from cost savings in chemicals, solid waste disposal, maintenance, and power. Following the successful commercial startup of this facility, the MWRD plans to implement WASSTRIP®, a process that turbocharges the nutrient recovery process and increases the amount of phosphorus recovered by more than 60 percent. As a result, the efficiency of the Pearl process will be further enhanced to decrease the magnitude of struvite scale formation and alleviate operational issues. How The Nutrient Facility Tied Into Current Operations Treatment at the Stickney WRP includes coarse screens, fine screens, grit removal, and primary treatment (gravity settling that removes readily settle-able solid material) followed by secondary treatment (activated sludge) and then discharge to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. For solids, primary sludge is screened and concentrated utilizing gravity concentration tanks, and waste activated sludge is thickened utilizing centrifuges. These solids streams are combined and anaerobically digested. Some of the digested sludge is currently sent to solids storage lagoons for aging. The remainder is sent to centrifuges for further dewatering (to approximately 25 percent solids). These solids are sent to multiple outlets: a pelletizer facility, farm land application, solids lagoons for aging, or solids drying areas for air drying. The aged solids from the lagoons are further air-dried on solids drying areas prior to beneficial reuse. Various recycle streams (centrates) from the many processes are returned to the headworks of the WRP. The phosphorus recovery facility is tied into the recycle streams of the centrifuges. It will initially accept post-digestion centrifuge centrate, and at a later date when the MWRD has designed and implemented the WASSTRIP technology, the facility will also accept predigestion centrifuge centrate. The Pearl process can recover more than 85 percent of the phosphorus and up to 15 percent of the nitrogen from wastewater streams before they accumulate as struvite in pipes and equipment. "To see the largest wastewater treatment facility in the world implement Ostara's system is proof to municipalities that there exists a viable and cost-effective solution to address their nutrient challenges," said environmental advocate and attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an Ostara board member. "Having a solution to solve plant issues while addressing more global challenges affecting the nation's watersheds, without economic burden, is progress for the environment, ratepayers, and future generations." The MWRD's new nutrient recovery facility is an example of how progressive technology can be implemented to transform a wastewater treatment facility into a resource recovery center, providing significant environmental benefits to the Chicago Area Waterway System and downstream to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The wateronline.com n Water Innovations 9 RESOURCERECOVERY Innovative Chemical Feed Solutions Model 4100 Liquid Vacuum Chemical Feeder Safely and Accurately Introduce Aqueous Chemicals into the Feed-Water Stream JCS Industries, Inc. I PO Box 90028 I Houston, TX 77290 Ph: 281-353-2100 I www.jcsindustries.us.com Wide flow range of 0 to 12,000 gpd Turn down ratio of 100:1 High accuracy: +/- 2% of actual feed System Flexibility: 4 Control Modes Battery Backup: > 2.5 hours of backup Programmable microprocessor No air binding possible Metering to validate actual flow rate Multiple failure mode alarms US PATENT: 7,776,275