Category Archives: Case Studies

Case Studies, Coal-Ash, Coal-Ash Leachate, News

Pumping Coal-Ash Leachate to Stay in Compliance

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A solar panel is mounted on a metal frame in an open field with tall grass, connected to an electrical box and a cylindrical pipe below, resembling a top-head drive pump. A flag is attached to the top of the frame. The sky is partly cloudy with bright sunlight illuminating the scene.
01
Jul

Apollo Solar Pumps Operate at
Remote Sites, Without Trenched Power

Near coal-fired electric power plants across the U.S. lies the residue of burned bituminous. The EPA calls it Coal Combustion Residuals (CCRs) — a combination of powdery light ash, heavy bottom ash, boiler slag and flue-gas desulfurization material.

The residue is commonly known as coal ash. It is often buried at sites officially classified as solid-waste landfills.

As with all landfills, rainwater can infiltrate a site to create liquid leachate. Coal-ash fluid is clear but can contain salts, heavy metals and other toxic chemicals. Fugitive coal-ash leachate can threaten public health.

Positive-displacement solar piston units pump virtually anything that flows, including high temperature, viscous or foamy fluids at any pH; operate at any angle including horizontal; are unaffected by changes in positive or negative pressure; can run dry without harm;

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Case Studies, Landfill Leachate, Remediation & Recovery, Solar Pumps, Solars vs Submersibles

Solars vs Submersibles

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An overhead view of a large cylindrical metal container housing complex industrial machinery with various components, wires, and tubes. A piece of white paper and a small blue and white tool sit at the bottom, adjacent to a top-head drive pump.
05
Apr

Solars Replace Submersibles to Keep Old Landfill Compliant In New Life as AZ City Park

The Paseo Vista Recreation Area is a big hill covered by boulders encased in sturdy wire and decorated with wildflowers. There’s a good chance the Chandler, Ariz., residents visiting the dog park, archery range and playground don’t know (or remember) that the mound was, for 30 years until 2005, the city landfill.

They certainly don’t see the four Apollo Solar Piston Pumps hidden in caissons and powered by unobtrusive low-rise solar panels behind a ridge, which help keep the closed site EPA compliant.

There’s a good chance the Chandler, Ariz., residents visiting the dog park, archery range and playground don’t know (or remember) that the mound was, for 30 years until 2005, the city landfill.

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Case Studies, Elevated Temperatures, ETLF, Landfill Leachate, Remediation & Recovery, Taming ET Sites

A Strategy to Tame ETLF Sites

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An outdoor setup featuring various pipes, valves, and gauges connected to a gas extraction wellhead with a top-head drive pump. The equipment is installed on a grassy hill with a highway and industrial buildings visible in the background. Colorful hoses are attached to the apparatus.
05
Apr

The ETLF Issue

For the past several years, a growing number of landfill managers have confronted temperatures ranging from 150°F to 250°F or more (65°C to 121°C) from deep inside larger, wetter, maturing sites — not from subsurface fires but from biological or chemical exothermic reactions within zones of the landfill itself.

High concentrations of varied, recombinant leachate compositions in these Elevated Temperature Landfills (ETLFs) can lead to higher costs for treatment or even the refusal of local wastewater treatment plants to accept the leachate, according to a three-part series by Waste 360 in conjunction with ELEF.

Elevated temperatures also may result in slope instability due to reduced waste strength or increased liquid- or gas-pore pressures; surprise sinkholes, and rapid settlement – all safety and infrastructure issues.

In addition, odor and the possibility of offsite gas migration and leachate release have resulted in public demands for tighter operations and oversight and, occasionally, litigation. Research into the causes and spread of ETLFs is ongoing.

For the past several years, a growing number of landfill managers have confronted temperatures ranging from 150°F to 250°F or more (65°C to 121°C) from deep inside larger, wetter, maturing sites — not from subsurface fires but from biological or chemical exothermic reactions within zones of the landfill itself.

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Case Studies, Clean Energy / RNG, Manure to Energy

Manure to Energy

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A fenced area with a solar-powered water pump system, featuring a top-head drive pump. The setup includes two solar panels mounted on a pole, red pipes, and control equipment encased in a grey box. Surrounding the equipment is a gravel path with green vegetation in the background.
05
Apr

ZERO-EMISSION SOLARS PUMP BIOGAS CONDENSATE SUMPS AT MISSOURI HOG FARMS MANURE-TO-ENERGY PROJECT

When America’s largest hog producer, Smithfield Foods, joined with one of the country’s most respected renewable-energy engineers, Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE), to create Monarch Bioenergy in 2020, the concept of turning manure to renewable natural gas (RNG) at Smithfield’s sprawling Missouri farm sites took firm shape.

Hog waste went to a covered lagoon, where the decomposing manure produced methane, which was to be scrubbed and ultimately fed into natural gas pipelines.

When America’s largest hog producer, Smithfield Foods, joined with one of the country’s most respected renewable-energy engineers, Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE), to create Monarch Bioenergy in 2020

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