Cost Comparison

FORAGERŪ Absorbents have emerged from EPA Superfund testing. They remove trace amounts of toxic heavy metals to non-detectable levels at minimal cost.

Contamination of ground water, waste water, storm water, and landfill leachate is a major problem that has traditionally been ignored, or when treated, done so with expensive remediation techniques. Treatment systems typically employ:

  • zeolites
  • activated carbon or alumina
  • precipitating agents
  • ion-exchange resins
  • surface-modified clays
  • separation membranes
  • peat moss & related natural products

None of such products or methods can be universally applied to common pollution problems. Each has certain limitations which prevent use in many instances. Some are too costly to use in all but the most critical situations, some simply don't work with certain metals, and some require complicated upstream pretreatment or expensuve equipment.

FORAGERŪ absorbents overcome many obstacles, making remediation economically feasible now in most instances of trace contamination, regardless of contaminant or facility.

Calculating what it costs to actually use a particular absorbent is more complicated than merely comparing purchase prices of competing products. To accurately compare one product to another, it is necessary to determine what it actually costs to remove and dispose of a certain quantity of the targeted contaminant. Consideration must be given not only to the purchase price of the absorbent, but to the weight and volume of absorbent needed to extract a specific quantity of the contaminant. Disposal costs, installation costs, monitoring costs, and operating and maintenance costs must also be figured into the equation.

The following example is based upon using granular FORAGERŪ Type M-TU to remove mercury at a 20 ppb level and compares operating costs with commercially available beaded ion exchange resin and sulphur-treated activated carbon (on a dry weight basis).

ABSORBENT ForagerŪ Ion Exchange Activated Carbon
Absorbent Cost $52/kg $48/kg $6/kg
Hg loading @ 20 ppb input 60 g/kg 44 g/ kg 10 g/kg
Quantity needed to remove 1 kg of Hg 16 kg 23 kg 100 kg
Disposal Costs per kg Hg @ $400/ 55 gal. drum $72 $110 $800
Total Cost to Remove 1 kg of Hg $921 $1,214 $1,400

There are other significant cost savings as well. For example FORAGERŪ Sponge is usually deployed in a column or disposable drum, or confined within a net bag in an in-situ or passive gravity flow operation. No costly pumps, plumbing, or prefiltration is required. This greatly reduces installation and process costs, as well as expensive downtime when replacement of the absorbent medium is required.

Because of the fast kinetics of ForagerŪ absorbents (1 - 2 minute contact time versus 20 - 40 minute contact time for activated carbon) equipment of considerably smaller size is possible.