Component #2
Commercial value of technology

Give two examples and descriptions of products (and the companies where they are produced) which are commercially available and directly related to the NCT application your team has selected.

   One existing product that obviously relates to our product are the existing sewage treatment plants that are all over the world.  Much of our project was based on our local municipal sewage facility, Bethune Point Wastewater Treatment Plant.  There are many companies that manufacture the components for such a facility.  Florida Aquastore is a company that manufactures many of the components needed for a municipal sewage plant.  These components consist mainly of all the different tanks needed to process the sewage.  Another existing product that relates to our NCT are the digesters that are used to create methane from unused sewage sludge. Roediger Pittsburgh Inc. is a major supplier of pancake and egg digesters. 

Identify a product or trade organization affiliated with the products you identified, describe their mission, number of companies involved and economic importance.

Florida Water Pollution and Control Operators Association (FWPCOA) is an organization involved in the production, treatment or distribution of water and/or the collection, or disposal of wastewater, from either industrial or domestic use. The organization's mission is to educate as well as train operators in order to improve professions such as a waste water facility operator. FWPCOA is also developing methods to license such operators. Numerous organizations collaborate with the Florida Section of the American Water Works Association. These include: the Florida Pollution Control Association, the Florida State Department's of Health, Environmental Regulation, Professional Regulation, and the State's Educational System and the University of Florida's TREEO Center. Their economic impact is very direct. The more people the organization educates, the more wastewater management operators can apply the acquired knowledge which would eventually result in a rise of salaries.

With permission of FWPCOA

   The publication of articles in the Florida Water Resources Journal is very much in tune with their mission by keeping small cities and communities informed about new methods to improve sewage treatment plants which benefits the environment, economy and safety. The State of Florida provides licensing tests and the organization volunteers to certify professions involved in wastewater and stormwater fields.(Florida Water Pollution and Control Operators Association)  

Propose a new product or process based on the team's NCT application, provide details regarding possible customer base, suggested retail price (per unit) and projected sales of product for years 1 through 3.

    Our treatment plant incorporates all of the elements of Bethune Point's plant plus an additional primary clarifier tank, an egg digester with a dewatering facility that will enable us to treat the waste more fully. The addition of these components attribute to our setup system being "very sophisticated" (Dr. Marcus Roediger) when compared to the average treatment facility.  The flow through our plant emulates the sequence described on the Existing Plants page.

    The primary economic benefit of our vertical solution comes as result of better land utilization.  Land prices, particularly in the urban environment we envision our product being used, are prohibitively high.  The land needed for our complete system of six towers is estimated  conservatively at 126,000 ft² (11,705 m²).  This is over an 80% improvement on the typical horizontal layout of components of a plant with equivalent capacity.  Consequently, our system will yield an 80% reduction in land costs.   In the urban areas we are targeting, this reduction is very significant.  For the Tokyo market, land alone will cost $26,000,000 (U.S. dollars), comparatively a savings of over $100,000,000.  It is important to note that the Tokyo market (and Asia in general) represents the upper end of the price spectrum.  Development of foreign and domestic economies will continue to put pressure on land prices.  The 600% increase in Tokyo land prices from 1960-1990 can be looked at as an example of the explosive growth possibilities in the 21st century.

     Another important economic advantage of our product is its incorporation of an advanced biodigestion system.  The environmental effects of this component are immediately relevant in the overall scheme of our project.  But the methane produced also results in significant cost savings.  Utilizing the methane to produce electricity reduces electricity costs by 75%.  Furthermore, full digestion of the sludge reduces its volume by 40%.  In turn, this will reduce the costs involved in shipping the final sludge product by the same amount.  The combined savings of these two benefits are estimated at approximately $1.1 million annually.

Via e-mail locate a company that might manufacture your proposed product and ask them to evaluate what you have proposed.

    We have received affirmations from Mr. Duane Anderson, an architect, Dr. Martin Thomas, a professor of environmental engineering at Rose-Hulman University, and Dr. Marcus Roediger, president of Roediger Pittsburgh Inc. a company which makes components for waste treatment plant systems. All of whom acknowledged that our proposal was well-founded and that success was certain.  We also received an estimate on the construction cost from Glenn Kerk, from Master Metal Products Company.