Degremont

Degremont Technologies-Infilco (DTI) describes itself as "a U.S. affiliate of the world’s leading water treatment engineering company," SUEZ environment. "Infilco provides end-to-end solutions in four primary business sectors: drinking water, industrial water, wastewater and sludge treatment by specializing in technologies such as high-rate clarification, filtration, biological treatment, headworks and high-temperature fluid bed incineration."

Involvement in the Toxic Sludge Industry
According to the DTI website, it "provides high performance solutions that result from the latest technological advancements in drinking water, wastewater and sludge treatment," i.e. sewage sludge, or "biosolids," the Orwellian PR euphemism for toxic sewage sludge.

Jongmin Kim, an Application Engineer for DTI, spoke at the 2011 BioCycle "11th Annual Conference on Renewable Energy from Organics Recycling" in Madison, Wisconsin, on a panel entitled "Codigestion at Wastewater Treatment Plants," along with other sewage sludge industry representatives. BioCycle Magazine is a publication serving the interests of the sewage sludge industry. The Center for Media and Democracy attended the panel.

Kim's segment was entitled, "Advanced Anaerobic Digestion System Meets Codigestion Challenges."

Kim discussed the design of an anaerobic digester system for the Hermitage Municipal Authority's wastewater treatment plant in Hermitage, PA. The Authority wanted to upgrade its facilities in part because electricity and sludge disposal are a major expenditure for wastewater treatment plants, and an anaerobic digester would both offset electricity and heat usage and reducing the cost of transport of "biosolids" afterwards by reducing their volume.

Kim's equation was:

Sewage/sludge/seepage/food waste/FOG (Fats, Oils and Grease)/etc. + Anaerobic Digestion = Biogas and/or electricity

Left out of this equation was the production of "digestate," or "biosolids"-- i.e. toxic sludge. Kim and Degremont advocate that this "digestate" continue to be land-applied "as fertilizer because the biosolids are pathogen free." In fact, the financial model advocated for wastewater treatment plants to earn a "return on investment" for installing anaerobic digesters "takes into account being able to sell pathogen-free biosolids as fertilizer locally."

But the digested sludge, although reduced in volume, still contains contaminants such as Dioxins and Furans, Flame Retardants, Metals, Organochlorine Pesticides, 1,2-Dibromo-3-Chloropropane (DBCP), Naphthalene, Triclosan, Nonylphenols, Phthalates, Nanosilver, and thousands more substances.

According to Kim's biography in the conference program, he "has been with Degremont since August 2010, and champions advances digestion technologies for the biosolids team."

Contact Details
Infilco Degrémont Inc. 8007 Discovery Drive Richmond, VA 23229 - 8605 Tel : + 1 804 756 76 00 Fax :+ 1 804 756 76 43 Email : info-infilco@degtec.com Website : http://www.degremont.com/en/homepage/

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Toxic sludge
 * Toxic Sludge Portal
 * Sludge contaminants