Game-Changing Polymers – Trenchless Article
A Growing Need For Liquid Waste Disposal Solutions
Recently, Trenchless Technology Magazine published an article in their 2021 HDD Guide, written by Andrew McNabb, President & COO at MetaFLO, on the increasing demand for effective liquid waste disposal solutions. In this blog post, we’ll break down the article’s key takeaways.
Urban expansion is a growing reality across municipalities. With urban expansion comes the need for new infrastructure and infrastructure upgrades which create a significant amount of liquid waste. While liquid waste is already challenging enough to manage on its own, tunneling and drilling activities associated with these upgrades are often done in close proximity to large urban areas where the possibility of contaminating groundwater and surrounding soil would only increase the complexity of managing the liquid waste generated.
How does polymer technology work?
Tunneling & Microtunneling – Depending on ground conditions, the soil removed from tunnels can be quite liquid. Spoils solidification with environmentally friendly polymers from MetaFLO Technologies provide an innovative and effective method to efficiently dry the wet spoils.
HDD (Horizontal Directional Drilling) – Disposal of liquid drilling slurry can be costly and negatively impact the environment if not managed properly. MetaFLO’s technology can solidify the liquid waste on-site, which then allows the solidified waste to be transferred in dump trucks directly to the final disposal site.
Hydro-Excavation – Hydro excavation generates liquid slurry that’s typically dumped at various receiving sites to dry. MetaFLO’s technology will allow receiving sites to solidify the slurry within minutes of receiving the material, which means the footprint of the receiving sites can be significantly reduced and the overall operating cost will be drastically lower. After solidification, the soil-like material can be loaded into dump trucks and transported to the final disposal site.
Concerns With Urban Expansion
Risk to freshwater systems and wastewater security is a key concern with urban expansion. One of the largest components of these municipalities’ infrastructure deficit is the underground networks responsible for managing freshwater and removing wastewater. This aging infrastructure was not designed for the current high volumes of water being produced and this concern will only become increasingly pressing as more people move to cities.
Considering growth is inevitable and desirable for many municipalities, traditional and less efficient solutions for liquid waste management often become default while more efficient solutions are ignored – Traditionally, the removal of wastewater slurry involves collecting liquid waste in inground sumps or tanks and having vacuum trucks transport the wet material to disposal sites outside of the city. This method often leads to increased costs, greater risk due to the number of trucks used to transport high volumes of liquid waste, and more greenhouse gas emissions. However, alternative options that are simpler and more environmentally friendly do exist.
MetaFLO’s Game-Changing Polymers
MetaFLO’s polymer technology helps you avoid all inefficiencies of traditional liquid waste management solutions – It allows you to solidify waste on site to reduce total volume and improve treatment time. This waste is then shipped directly to the final disposal site with standard dump trucks. By creating less waste you will use less trucks and emit less greenhouse gases. The resulting solid waste could also potentially be used for beneficial reuse. Overall, MetaFLO’s polymer technology results in a faster, simpler, and more environmentally conscious solution for liquid waste management.
Interested in learning more? Check out the full article in Trenchless Technology Magazine’s HDD Guide 2021 Supplement on page 59 or directly on-line using this link.