Calgon Carbon Corporation announced that the company and the city of Phoenix, Arizona, have signed a ten year contract to provide reactivation services for activated carbon used to treat the city’s drinking water.
The value of the contract will depend upon the amount of spent activated carbon that is reactivated annually, which is expeected to be approximately 11 million pounds.
As part of the agreement, Calgon Carbon will build a reactivation facility in Maricopa County, Arizona, which will be used to reactivate Phoenix’s spent carbon.
The reactivation facility, which is expected to be complete in 2013, will be owned and operated by Calgon Carbon and will have an annual reactivation capacity of approximately 25 million pounds. The facility is expected to serve as a regional center, providing custom reactivation services for other municipalities that utilize granular activated carbon to treat their drinking water, including two additional cities in Arizona, whose representatives served on the selection panel for the Phoenix project. During the construction of the facility, Calgon Carbon will utilize its existing reactivation capacity to meet Phoenix’s requirements.
Phoenix is usingGAC in response to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Stage 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts (DBPs) are permitted to be present in drinking water. The GAC removed organic compounds from the water, reducing the formation for byproducts after the addition of chlorine. The city of Phoenix chose this method rather than replacing chlorine with alternative disinfectants, which would not be as effective and would produce other potentially harmful byproducts.
In 2009, Phoenix awards Calgon Carbon a $14.3m contract to provide the initial virgin carbon for its drinking water plants. The company provides 16 million pounds of GAC to Phoenix in December 2011 and expects to begin reactivating spent carbon in the second quarter of 2012.
Commenting on the award, Bob O’Brien, executive vice president and COO of Calgon Carbon, said: "This project demonstrates that the city of Phoenix recognizes the benefits of using granular-activated carbon to reduce disinfection byproducts. Since reactivated carbon is less costly than the virgin carbon manufacturing process, the city will also realise significant economic and environmental benefits."