USAF awards contract to CTC for black water processing system

The US Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Advanced Power Technology Office (APTO), has awarded a contract worth around $1.6m to Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) for the development of an Expeditionary Black Water Processing System (EBWPS) to cut down environmental impacts of wastewater on host nations.

The EBWPS is expected to complement the existing Expeditionary Wastewater Reuse System (EWRS) at Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resource (BEAR) locations.

CTC developed EWRS many years ago to recycle grey water.

CTC project manager Thomas J. Piro said: “The EWRS was designed to reclaim 90 percent of grey water from showers and laundry. That’s less water that Airmen have to truck in at BEAR sites, saving time while reducing the risk of transport through hostile territory.

“When deployed, the EWRS will create an unexpected good news, bad news scenario. Because the new grey water system will reclaim all but 10 percent of grey water at BEAR sites, the black water (sewage) at BEAR sites will no longer be liquid enough, making disposal problematic. Our Air Force client returned to CTC engineers to develop a black water system that will complement the grey water system.”

AFRL-APTO programme manager Mark Ray said: “The CTC team appreciates the opportunity to develop an energy-efficient system to treat black water in a manner that will meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Public Health Center standards for direct discharge back to the environment.”

Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) is an applied scientific research and development professional services firm. Along with its affiliates, Enterprise Ventures Corporation and CTC Foundation – CTC makes use of research, development, test and evaluation work to provide transformative, full lifecycle solutions.