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 municpal 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 Pittsburg 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) 

Urban conditions are creating a pending disaster for current waste  treatment systems.  Our project aims to help alleviate the prevalent undercapacity.  Yet this must be done realizing the reality of economic constraints.  As new treatment centers are built to fulfill the need for additional capacity, they must be designed to better use the available land.  Piping costs render long distance transport of sewage outside of cities an unfeasible solution.    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

Used with courtesy of lygo.com

      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.

   Perhaps most importantly are the many intangible economic benefits our waste treatment solution provides.  The systems we have implemented will ultimately benefit the economy via environmental sensitivity.   Methane that is now being released into the atmosphere has nearly 30 times the potency (Scientific America) of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.  Water quality will be improved by reducing the sludge volume and increasinging its utility as a ferilizer.  There is no question that human activities are aggravating the process of global warming.  The economic damage due to a rise in sea levels would be catastrophic.  This alone provides a compelling reason to choose our waste treatment system.  In addition, world population growth is still proceeding at an exponential rate.  From the current 6 billion, an additional billion will be added every 12 years.  Such a phenomenal growth will exacerbate all population related problems, including the need for environmentally sound methods of waste disposal.  As more people are forced to fit into a finite amount of space, land will necessarily become an increasingly important commodity.  Our project has demonstrated that an environmentally advanced system can be placed in a smaller footprint, and at great cost savings.

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 product is a combination of certify existing wastewater treatment technology and modern construction methods.  In many cities such as Los Angeles, New York or Miami, there is crisis developing.  Growing populations and limited land area combine to cause sewage levels and property values that are constantly on the rise.  The current sprawling wastewater treatment facilities are an ineffective use of valuable land in densely populated areas.  Just like modern cities looked to the skies when they ran out of room, we propose sending wastewater treatment plants upward.  Our facility also has the added bonus of easily capturing all of the methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. This captured methane, other than helpful as a pollution control method, can be used in many different ways.  Below is a picture of our proposed structure.

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