Organic Products News

Short sea shipping is alive and well on America’s East Coast. In the United States, counties and states directly on the shoreline constitute less than 10 percent of the total land area (not including Alaska), but account for 39 percent of the total population. From 1970 to 2010, the population of these counties increased by almost 40 percent and are projected to increase by an additional 10 million people or 8 percent by 2020. Coastal areas are substantially more crowded than the U.S. as a whole, and population density in coastal areas will continue to increase in the future.

Vehicle ferry Bowen Queen, operated by the British Columbia Ferry Corporation (BCFC), has been retrofitted with Hydroxyl's enclosed wastewater treatment system. The Hydroxyl system uses ozone to disinfect the effluent rather than chlorine, thereby eliminating the need for chemical storage on the vessel. In biological treatment systems, bacteria are used to "eat" the organic products and chlorine is subsequently added to disinfect the effluent prior to discharge. Non-biological systems screen the solids but the harmful byproducts of using chlorine are still evident and the soluble organics are not removed. As a result, this type of system…