Environmental Valuation & Cost-Benefit News

Link: http://www.ostara.com/files/u1/Sep_25_2008_Ostara_News_Release.pdf

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc., developer and marketer of proprietary technologies that recover resources from wastewater and recycle them into valuable products, announced on September 23, 2008 the completion of a U.S. $10.5 million private equity financing. The financing was led by VantagePoint Venture Partners, a leading international CleanTech investor based in Silicon Valley. Also participating was Foursome Investments Limited, a London-based venture investor that focuses on environmental and clean technology.

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. was founded in 2005. The Company's lead technology platform removes phosphorus and other pollutants from wastewater and recycles them into environmentally safe commercial fertilizer. The Company's first commercial-scale plant began operation in Edmonton, Alberta in 2007. The Company's first commercial-scale plant in the U.S. will begin operating in the spring of 2009 at the Durham Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility in metropolitan Portland, Oregon. Clean Water Services, the water utility that owns and manages the facility, will operate the $2.5 million multi-reactor plant and share revenue from the sale of the fertilizer, called Crystal Green (which is sold to farmers and golf courses).

Phillip Abrary, President and CEO of Ostara, said the financing will enable the Company to accelerate the commercialization of its technology to municipalities, ethanol biofuel plants and food processing plants in the U.S. and Canada at which successful field trials have already been completed. As many as 400 municipalities and industrial plants in North America and 500 in Europe are potential customers for the Ostara process. "Over the past year, we have successfully demonstrated in a large commercial plant that our process handles sewage sludge liquids in a way that reduces operating costs, increases overall plant capacity, complies with environmental regulations and produces revenue from byproduct," said Abrary. "This equity investment from VantagePoint and Foursome will enable us to increase the pace of our deployment at additional wastewater treatment plants."

Phosphorus can trigger unhealthy algal blooms in rivers and lakes. The province set a limit for phosphorus discharge in wastewater in 2005. The city must remove most of it before pouring any treated wastewater back into the river.

Until now, the phosphorus removed at the Gold Bar wastewater treatment plant was sent back to the Clover Bar settling ponds, said Abdul Mohammed, the plant's superintendent of engineering services. If it didn't settle into the sludge, it would return again to the treatment plant.

But, phosphorus also sticks to pipe walls in a layer called struvite. This layer can constipate piping systems, leading to reduced system capacity and higher operating costs. Mohammed said it costs $100,000 a year to clean the pipes.

The Alberta plant has managed to remove 80 to 90 per cent of the phosphorus and 10 to 15 per cent of the ammonia in the wastewater. The city wanted the reactor to remove at least 75 per cent of the phosphorus for it to be a worthwhile investment,

The phosphorus that is removed makes a high-quality fertilizer, he added. The company claims maintenance and capacity cost savings and fertilizer revenue make up for the cost of a reactor (between $2 million to $4 million, depending on size) within three to five years.

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. www.ostara.com
also see Venture Beat http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/26/ostara-secures-105m-for-wastewater-to-fertilizer-technology/
and Edmonton Journal http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=3080401b-cc04-4c76-b787-3c9d16bb7fb2&k=99624