Ultra-S3 is typically treated in locations where there is excellent mixing (at the suction or discharge of a pump is the ideal location) where the water will become aerobic within 4-6 hours after treatment. Ultra-S3 destroys hydrogen sulfide on contact as long as the Ultra-S3 and hydrogen peroxide are able to physically mix and contact the hydrogen sulfide. In a typical situation, for every kilogram of hydrogen sulfide that needs to be treated per day, you will need 3.75 liters of 35% hydrogen peroxide or 2.5 liters of 50% hydrogen peroxide along with 0.4 liters per day of Ultra-S3. If you can provide us with the average daily amount of hydrogen sulfide in the water phase of your waste stream, along with the total volume of water processed per day, we can calculate budgetary estimates for the amount of hydrogen peroxide and Ultra-S3 needed to treat your system.

Mixing time is not really a quantifiable factor, unfortunately.  This is mainly due to the fact that when you get on an actual job site, the ability to control mixing of a large amount of wastewater is limited. The best places to dose are locations that ensure the best mixing.  Examples of this could be a force main line where there’s a lot of volatility in the water, or in a mixing box where multiple lines converge, or at the suction of a lift pump.

Ultra-S3 works very well with a variety of other chemicals.  It’s typically hard to change its path of oxidizing organics.  The only way this can be done is if you mix it into an environment where the pH is too high or low.  So outside of strong acids and bases (that have an overall influencing factor on the wastewater), it seems to play quite well with others.  One thing that does need to be taken very seriously is the materials that come into contact with the peroxide.  There are a variety of safety protocols for hydrogen peroxide, and it is important to use stainless steel and/or unreactive plastics with a high concentration of hydrogen peroxide.

It is important to dose Ultra-S3 and hydrogen peroxide into the waste systems separately. If Ultra-S3 is mixed directly with hydrogen peroxide, it will generate a highly exothermal reaction that can be very volatile in closed systems such as pipes or pumps. As long as they are dosed independently into waste streams that can dilute the Ultra-S3 by at least 100:1, this will be mitigated. In normal operation, the dilution rate will be well below the 100:1 ratio.

Some competing technologies are:

– Calcium Nitrate – Calcium Nitrate works because the sulfide-producing anaerobic bacteria would prefer to use nitrogen as an energy source than they would sulfur. When there is a lot of nitrogen (or nitrates) in the waste stream, the anaerobic bacteria are content using the nitrate and therefore do not produce any hydrogen sulfide.  Calcium nitrate can be very effective in reducing odor and corrosion caused by hydrogen sulfide; however, as you change the food source of the bacteria, it is inevitable that there needs to be more food added to feed this growing population of bacteria, which leads to increased usage over time in order to continue the odor and corrosion control. Additionally, instead of producing hydrogen sulfide as a byproduct, bacteria that feed on nitrates will produce nitrogen as a byproduct. This causes two problems – first, it adds nitrogen to the system and could trigger nitrogen discharge limits at the plant; secondly, this nitrogen will bubble to the surface wherever there is a future pressure drop in the system, causing fats, oils, and greases to float to the top of the waste stream and can cause blockages in the system that will need to be dealt with in some fashion.

– Iron Salts – Iron salts are a common, cost-effective way to bind hydrogen sulfide in waste streams. They are available as ferric chloride, ferrous chloride, ferrous sulfate, etc. These compounds work very well when the pH is alkaline (above pH of 8), but if the pH is lowered at any further point, the hydrogen sulfide can re-volatize. Additionally, iron salts can create films on the walls of pipes and pumps and can cause premature flocculation of solids in the waste stream. In general, large amounts of iron salts need to be added to the system in order to control sulfide, and this generally adds a significant amount of solids that need to be removed in a centrifuge or dewatering press downstream from the sulfide treatment.

– Hydrogen peroxide (standalone) – In some waste streams, hydrogen peroxide (normally 35% or 50%) is used to oxidize hydrogen sulfide. This can be effective, but hydrogen peroxide is a very strong and very versatile compound that will attack almost any oxidizable compound in the waste stream. The result of this versatility is that if your goal is only to remove hydrogen sulfide, you need to add more peroxide than is dictated by the chemical reaction, as much of the peroxide will be “wasted” in the oxidation of other compounds, which may not be problematic to the system. The addition of Ultra-S3 to a system that only uses hydrogen peroxide makes the oxidation of hydrogen sulfide much more efficient, generally saving up to 30-40% on chemical treatment costs.

– Magnesium Hydroxide (“Milk of Magnesia”) – Magnesium Hydroxide is a commonly used technology that looks like a chalky milk. It works by raising the pH of wastewater so that the hydrogen sulfide would prefer to stay in the liquid phase as opposed to the gas phase. When hydrogen sulfide is in the gas phase, it leads to odor and corrosion issues. The downsides of this treatment are that, because of its chalky physical nature, it can clog up the wastewater infrastructure, including pipelines and pumps; additionally, if there is ever a point where more water joins the system, it can cause a quick drop in pH, leading to all of the water phase hydrogen sulfide transitioning to the gas phase, creating a large plume of hydrogen sulfide concentrations in the air. – ProSweet – this is a GE product that is used in industrial applications for H₂S treatment.  It is a patent protected formula that acts to scavenge or sequester H₂S in wastewater.  It seems to work well, but in our lab studies, it did not perform as well as Ultra-S3. Ultra-S3 is also a price competitive alternative to this technology.

– Ozone – sometimes you’ll see ozone being used to treat H₂S.  Ozone is incredibly expensive to run, can be dangerous for people to breathe the ozonated air, and the machines that produce ozone are typically not very reliable.

– Triazene – this is a commonly used technology in the oil field in the amine family.  The downsides of this technology are the nitrogen described above.  Amine chloride also apparently causes fouling in distillation processes.

It can, though it would be wise to ensure that you have a solid 100:1 ratio of wastewater to Ultra-S3.  It may be that you can go lower than 100:1, but you don’t want to approach the limit where the exothermic portion of the reaction is noticeable in the treatment.  Typically this is not a problem because you’re treating such large quantities of wastewater.

We have used Ultra-S3 in activated sludge plants.  Generally, sludge is very high in BOD, and any peroxide added to a sludge system is used up within seconds. The advantage of Ultra-S3 is that if mixed quickly enough with the peroxide (ideally at the suction of the sludge transfer pump to the centrifuge or dewatering press) it can keep the peroxide focused on the sulfide long enough to destroy the sulfide, which will happen very quickly (within seconds).

Because Ultra-S3 is an organic, not hazardous iron-based reactant, it can be confidently discarded without impact to the nutrient or metal discharge permitting process. Additionally, the amount of elemental sulfur generated by the Ultra-S3 process is so small it is not even noticed in the downstream systems of the plant.

It will lower them to some extent as it eliminates sulfide and other organics in the water. We are not sure how low it will bring them, it will need to be tested. Ultra-Microbes may help.

Fenton’s reagent is the use of an iron catalyst with hydrogen peroxide to oxide-organic contaminants in waste streams. The Fenton’s reagents also utilize hydroxyl radicals in the oxidation process. One main difference is that Fenton’s reagents only work at low pH ranges (below pH 4.5 and optimally at pH 3.0), and have little or no viability to oxidize contaminants at neutral or alkaline pH ranges. Ultra-S3 only works at neutral to slightly alkaline pH range (between pH 6.3 – 8.5 and ideally at pH 7.8), and works at a much higher efficiency than Fenton’s reagents, due to the proprietary oxidation mechanism that Ultra-S3 utilizes with hydrogen peroxide. Fenton’s reagents and Ultra-S3 are similar in concept but very different in practice and performance.

Peristaltic pumps are typically used to pump clean/sterile or aggressive fluids because cross contamination with exposed pump components cannot occur. In this case, the hydrogen peroxide would only contact the tubing, which is cheap and easy to come across in HDPE (and seals and O-rings are not an issue)… And hydrogen peroxide requires HDPE or stainless materials of construction due to its corrosive and aggressive nature. Peristaltic pumps are used pretty often in industrial applications. They generally provide the longest possible tubing lifetime and a constant pulse-free flow.

Pumps are specific based on flow rate. Peristaltic pumps with stainless or HDPE wetted parts. We can spec and provide pumps but we recommend sourcing it locally. We have found Qdos Pumps to be user-friendly and are available internationally, with local distributors. These are easy to maintain and average about $1,000 USD.  Here is the link to their website:

http://www.qdospumps.com/contact.aspx

Treating wastewater with Ultra-S3 and hydrogen peroxide at typical dosage rates (parts per million of each chemical) will not have any adverse effect on the bacterial populations downstream. Unless the treatment levels were raised by 1,000x, the amount of peroxide in the system would be well below the limit where any harm would occur.

EAR99 (the product does not have any export controls placed upon it).

Ultra-S3 freezes at -10C (14F).

There is currently no shelf life for Ultra-S3. The company that developed the technology was able to test product that was older than 8 years old and it performed as well as when the product was brand new.

We would recommend that you reach out to UltraTech to discuss your specific application prior to receiving any samples of product. You would be able to work with one of our team to discuss the opportunity using your specific facility parameters and determine how much Ultra-S3 and H₂O₂ would be needed for a laboratory sample/testing. We would also be able to work with you in determining the amounts needed to begin a trial/pilot study prior to a full implementation of Ultra-S3 into your system.

UltraTech does not sell hydrogen peroxide – you would need to source it from a local chemical company in your area.