US federal agencies recommend Silver Bullet water treatment tech

US federal agencies General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Energy (DOE) and National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) have recommended the deployment of Silver Bullet Water Treatment’s solution for cooling towers in the buildings owned and managed by the federal government.

The agencies found that the company’s Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) technology met the success criteria for water savings, water chemistry, lower chemical costs, cost-effectiveness and ease of installation.

According to the agencies, Silver Bullet is ideal for deployment into appropriate US government buildings due to simplicity of the technology, ease of installation, reduction in on-site chemical usage benefit and resource savings.

The three agencies have recently released a report ‘Demonstration and Evaluation of an Advanced Oxidation Technology for Cooling Tower Water Treatment’ consisting of the evaluation of the company’s cooling tower water treatment.

The report has been released after the conclusion of GSA’s four-year Green Proving Ground (GPG) alternative water treatment (AWT) evaluation programme.

For the evaluation, Silver Bullet and competing AWTs were installed and tested at Building 95 of Denver Federal Center (DFC). The 163,206ft², two-storey office/laboratory building was constructed in 1999 and the major tenant is the US Department of Interior.

In 2014, Building 95 installed a non-chemical AWT system, which was affected by algae growth despite additional biocides.

Consequently, the system was decommissioned and the O&M reverted to traditional chemical treatment.

Later, the Silver Bullet AOP system was installed and an evaluation period commenced.

The Silver Bullet’s AOP resulted in 26% estimated water and sewer savings; improved chiller operations; increased cycles of concentration; and reduction in operations and management.

The AOP installation was also simple and non-invasive and water chemistry met all GSA standards.

The system also resulted in a three-year payback on the government’s water treatment investment at average and sewer costs.

Silver Bullet CEO Brad Walsh said: “The federal government’s recommendation for deployment is a key step forward for Silver Bullet’s current and future partnership with the GSA.

“We are entering into exciting time for Silver Bullet to be a key collaborator with GSA, DOE and NREL to save water resources, energy usage and costs.”