If people haven't seen a water treatment facility
This image is from http://www.algalturfscrubber.com/
Also here is a quote from the algal turf scrubber site...
"...the ATS algal product can also be converted to paper and construction materials and can be used to sequester carbon and heavy metals as well as break-down toxic hydrocarbons. ATS-produced algae can be converted to energy products such as biodiesel, gasohol and methane."
http://www.chesapeake.org/stac/agconservationtools/kangas.pdf
This is a great 28 page presentation, read through it. Its brief and helpful in understanding how ATS systems are used in large scale applications.
Lots of pictures too...
http://www.physicsegypt.org/epc08/epc823.pdf
Another great document, short only 10 pages. It was written by Walter Adey, Phd, Jeffrey Bannon, MESM and Longenecker and Associate.
My favorite quotes and highlights
"it is important to note that this is a modular system, capable of expanding to any size."
I don't think they realized how small we would take it...
"A 2005 independent study of ATS, by the South Florida Water Management District and the IFAS Institute of the University of Florida, certified ATS as 5-100 times more cost efficient at removing nutrients from Everglades canal waters than the next competitor, the STA, a managed marsh system."
a marsh looks a lot like a refuge doesn't it?
"ATS and STA were the final contestants in a 15-year study of nine technologies, and ATS was the only technology that created a usable byproduct."
We are green both literately and figuratively!
"ATS removes heavy metals, break down toxic hydrocarbons, and oxygenates treated waters."
...but we already knew that...
"Depending upon season and temperature, the resulting algal turf must be harvested every 5-15 days to maintain high levels of productivity."
I have reason to believe that my system may benefit from a 5 day cleaning cycle. I will soon began testing this theory. I notice the algae on day 6 and 7 darken considerably. Yet on day 5 it is bright green in color.
"The above information is supported by dozens of experimental studies and hundreds of years of operational time (i.e., multiple ATS over 25 years of operation). Moreover, ATS systems have received over 15 years of research and development testing followed by a ten-year history of pilot plant construction and operation for water quality control. This not only includes ATS systems for water treatment, but also for aquaculture."
Tested for quite some time now...
"As in most photosynthesis, algal turfs abundantly release oxygen; in ATS systems, oxygen is dissolved into the overflowing water. It is not unusual for water flowing off an ATS plant in the afternoon to be highly supersaturated."
"ATS systems are well known for their abilities to “scrub” nitrogen and phosphorus. Their lack of sensitivity to nutrient concentration, until extremely low levels are achieved, provides the ability to accomplish high water purity."
"It has been known for a half century that algal cell walls adsorb heavy metals, and it is a characteristic of ATS phytoremediation, that heavy metals are removed from treated waters and sequestered into the algal biomass. This is an added value of ATS water cleaning, especially in waters with an industrial or urban component."
"ATS systems with high oxygen supersaturation break down entrained hydrocarbons. There is an extensive general research literature on this process, and a single ATS research study in the late 1990’s demonstrated that when combined with artificial ultraviolet, ATS systems have considerable capability of breaking down a variety of chlorinated hydrocarbons."
