Jul 31 2010
Cellect Plastics LLC, a client of Novak Druce + Quigg LLP attorney William Ramey III, is pleased to announce that it has signed a 5-year $30 million contract for the supply of Opflex(TM) The Green Stuff™ to Clearwater Technologies Inc. Opflex(TM) is a modified polymer foam sponge that is hydrophobic, repelling and floating on water, but rapidly attracts and absorbs any oil or hydrocarbon chemical present.
The captured oil can be easily recovered by wringing out the Opflex(TM) foam sponge and the material can then immediately be redeployed for further absorption work.
This makes Opflex(TM) the most innovative, environmentally responsible, simple, effective and affordable oil removal technology in the world - with many useful applications.
Scott Smith (President, CEO, and owner of both Cellect Technologies LLC and Cellect Plastics LLC), stated, “Since the flood of 2006 that nearly wiped out my entire polymer foam manufacturing operation in St. Johnsville, NY with oil contaminated water, I have been committed to developing a long term solution for oil removal from water and I have spent over $5 million in research and development related to a solution called Opflex(TM).
“Although Opflex(TM) is currently being used very successfully to help clean up oil in the Gulf from the spill and on its way to help with the spill in China, it was not created for this application but to address the problems with storm water runoff and associated oil contamination that annually seriously contaminates precious, and increasingly threatened, water resources throughout the USA and other developed and developing nations.”
Al Dunbar, President and CEO of Clearwater stated, “Surprisingly, the greatest problem we face with environmental contamination by oil is not spills like the Exxon Valdez disaster or even the oil well catastrophe in the Gulf, but the largely unseen, insidious and constant pollution of streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands and coastal waters by oil-contaminated storm water and snow melt run-off.
“Every day, many millions of vehicles constantly leak gasoline, diesel, engine oil, lubricants and coolants onto roads and parking lots. This pollution is then swept by the next rainfall into the nearest storm water drain. From there it flows - usually untreated - into water courses. Individually such leaks from 'non-point' sources may be small but, collectively and cumulatively, drip by drip, they amount to a 'torrent' of oil pollution! In the USA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that about 180 million gallons of oil per year escapes into the environment. That’s equivalent to 16 Exxon Valdez spills or one Gulf oil well incident every year! One quart of motor oil can pollute 250,000 gallons of water!”
Most of this pollution (around 60%) comes from untreated storm water and snow melt run-off. Forty percent of all water resources in the USA are polluted to the extent that they are unusable as drinking water sources or safe for fishing or swimming.
Opflex(TM) is unlike any other conventional white oil sorbent because it is open celled foam that is 70% less in weight and reusable - up to 100 times or more. Floating on water and rapidly absorbing 32 times its own weight in oil, Opflex(TM) can be wrung out to recover the captured oil (which can then be placed in drums for recycling). As it is both open-celled and water-repellent, the water flows through it while Opflex(TM) retains the oil, making Opflex(TM) a true absorbent and not an adsorbent. This improves oil removal efficiency significantly when compared to all other sorbent materials.
With a density of 1.5 pounds per cubic foot, the green Opflex(TM) is 70% less in weight than conventional oil sorbents, not only making Opflex(TM) easy to handle and very buoyant - with no risk of getting water logged and sinking - but ultimately having much less carbon impact than 50 – 60 pounds per cubic foot conventional white sorbents that are used once and placed in a landfill.
Source: http://www.cellectplastics.com/