Sludge Watch ==> China Grants Patent to ThermoEnergy Corp - sludge for fuel

[Maureen Reilly]

http://www.earthtalk.org/archives/china-grants-patent-for-american-designed-renewable-energy-technology/

China Grants Patent for American Designed Renewable Energy Technology

“ThermoFuel Process is a Renewable Energy technology that Converts Municipal 
Sewage Sludge into a High-Energy Fuel.” ThermoEnergy Corporation (BULLETIN 
BOARD: TMEN) announced today that the Chinese Patent Office granted the 
patent for the Company’s renewable energy technology known as the ThermoFuel 
Process (”TFP”). This is the second of the Company’s patent applications to 
be granted in China. The Enhanced Biogas Production process (”EnBP”), 
received a Chinese patent in 2006.

TFP will allow China to convert their sewage sludge, which is a by-product 
of municipal wastewater treatment plants, using a hydrothermal process that 
employs heat and pressure to create a high-energy fuel. When either TFP or 
EnBP are combined with the Company’s enhanced ammonia recovery technologies, 
it will mark the first time that municipal wastewater treatment plant 
operators will be able to eliminate their primary waste by-products totally 
on-site. Nothing will leave the plant but clean water and saleable 
commodities in the form of a high-energy biomass-derived fuel and a 
commercial grade fertilizer.

“This represents a seminal event for the Company,” said Dennis Cossey, CEO 
of ThermoEnergy. We have been developing a China Strategy ever since Alex 
Fassbender, the Company’s EVP and Chief Technology Officer, accompanied 
Secretary of Commerce Guiterrez on a trade mission to China in November of 
2006. The issuance of the TFP patent will allow the Company to begin 
implementation of this strategy.”

According to Fassbender, “China’s massive and accelerating economic growth 
over the past two decades has generated acute environmental challenges, 
especially where water is concerned. However, the complexities of doing 
business in China are well documented, and the Company adopted a ‘take-it- 
slow’ approach to doing business in China until the patents for its key 
water/wastewater treatment technologies were granted by the Central 
Government.”

The US Department of Commerce’s 2005 report entitled Water Supply and 
Wastewater Treatment Market in China projects that China will spend upwards 
of $22 billion (U.S.) on water and wastewater infrastructure by 2013. The 
Company is currently in negotiations with a Chinese entity to jointly market 
the Company’s proprietary and patented water technologies within China.

(Ed.: Congrats to a firm that has demonstrated that it is not only possible 
to do a much better job of conserving our environment, but they have 
actually done it and created saleable products in the process.)

About ThermoEnergy:

ThermoEnergy, along with its subsidiary company CASTion Corporation, is an 
award winning company, with offices in Arkansas, New York, Massachusetts, 
Florida, Louisiana, Ohio and California. The Company provides customized 
turnkey systems for the treatment and processing of municipal and industrial 
wastewater, chemical recovery, water conservation, and renewable energy. The 
Company offers a comprehensive range of products and services including 
vacuum distillation, evaporators, reverse osmosis, ion exchange, oil/water 
separators, water use reduction, hydrothermal processing and related water 
management services. In addition, the Company is developing an advanced 
power plant design that combusts fossil fuels and biomass with zero air 
emissions and carbon capture capability. The Company’s customer base 
includes municipal, military, power generation, mining, food processing, 
beverage, automotive, chemical process, refining, micro-electronics, heavy 
manufacturing, textile and semi-conductor industries; with successful 
process installations in the US, Japan, Canada and Mexico. Its client list 
includes many Fortune 100 companies. Additional information on ThermoEnergy 
and its CASTion subsidiary can be found on the following websites: 
http://www.thermoenergy.com/ and http://www.castion.com/.

Source for this post: ThermoEnergy Corporation

Contact: Dennis Cossey, CEO, Little Rock, AR Office, +1-501-376-6477, or
Alex Fassbender PE, EVP - CTO, Hudson, MA Office, +1-508- 568-1470 ext. 21;
both of ThermoEnergy Corporation

Websites: http://www.thermoenergy.com/
http://www.castion.com/