New Technology from Value Recovery Economically Reduces Hazardous Wastes And Greenhouse Gases

Value Recovery Inc., a research company based in southern New Jersey has filed a formal patent application for a chemical process that profitably converts hazardous waste materials into saleable products. This process will make a significant contribution to solving a problem that is a top priority of the chemical industry and the EPA. The process is applicable to hundreds of millions of pounds of hazardous wastes worldwide that each year wind up as greenhouse gases through incineration.

The technology, based on Phase Transfer Catalysis (PTC) is applicable to phenols, cyanides, acrylates, azides, organochlorine chemicals and many others. PTC can also be used to scrub methyl bromide from air streams. Methyl Bromide is being advanced by a University of Florida team led by R. H. Scheffrahn as the most effective method for killing Anthrax spores. However, methyl bromide is being phased out of production due to its ozone depleting characteristics. PTC technology would prevent methyl bromide from reaching the atmosphere

Value Recovery, Inc. recently presented data at an American Chemical Society meeting in Boston, which described the economic removal of over 99% of phenols and cyanides from wastewater containing them. This is significant because they are uneconomical to remove using existing technologies.

PTC is a sophisticated tool used primarily in the pharmaceutical industry to synthesize complex molecules. Its salient feature in environmental applications is that it can react hazardous chemicals dissolved in water or concentrated in gas streams and convert them into non-hazardous chemicals that can then be resold. This is not recycling in the classic sense because the recovery process results in the formation of a new product via the addition of a second chemical.

Peter Joyce, President of Value Recovery, says, "A new concept here is that we exploit the reactivity of these hazardous chemicals. If one relaxes the constraint that the chemical must be recycled as is, i.e. not be changed in any way, then you open up a whole new world of environmental abatement and energy efficiency."

Value Recovery, Inc., located in Bridgeport, NJ developed its technology from grants from The US Dept of Energy, Office of Industrial Technology and the N.J. Commission on Science and Technology.

Contact: Peter J. Joyce
Title: President
Phone: 856-467-6316
Address: Value Recovery, Inc.
510 Heron Drive, Suite 301
Bridgeport, New Jersey 08014-0712