Company: World Water Works, Inc., Oklahoma City, OK
Company Description: Founded in 1998 by our President and CEO, Mark Fosshage, World Water Works is a leading manufacturer of specialized process and wastewater treatment technologies. With a focus on cost effective performance, flexibility, and durability, the company works alongside clients to create the most appropriate treatment solutions.
Nomination Category: Products & Product Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: New Product or Service of the Year - Industrial Products & Services

Nomination Title: World Water Work's DEMON Process

1. Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 525 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and performance to date:

World Water Works, Inc., based in Oklahoma City, is a leading designer and manufacturer of specialized process and wastewater treatment solutions. Founded on a basis of delivering innovation and sustainability, they focus on cost effective performance, flexibility, and durability. They work alongside clients to create the most appropriate treatment solutions. Since its founding in 1998, the company’s technology has cleaned over 13 trillion gallons of water, facilitated the reuse of over 2 trillion gallons, and recovered millions of pounds of resources.

A process exclusively offered by World Water Works, Inc. is DEMON®, a patented and patent pending biological process used to remove nitrogen from wastewaters containing high ammonia concentrations. In Europe, the DEMON® process has been used at more than 20 wastewater treatment plants to remove more than 80 percent of the total nitrogen from pressate or centrate from solids dewatering. The technology is based on a biological process of partial nitritation and autotrophic nitrite reduction. In recent years total nitrogen removal has become one of the most significant cost factors a wastewater facility faces.

To comply with Environmental Protection Agency and state regulatory agency rules, facilities are confronted with major plant upgrades that include nitrification and denitrification. Upgrades require significant space, substantial capital investments, and impact both energy and chemical operational costs. High concentrations of ammonia in effluent (wastewater runoff) present a continuing problem for municipal wastewater plants and industrial facilities.

World Water Works’ DEMON® deammonification system has recently been introduced to the North American market and can be a solution. DEMON® is an acronym for DEamMONnification and was developed and patented by the University of Innsbruck, Austria. In the field of deammonification and nitrogen removal, World Water Works is working closely with their Swiss partner DEMON GmbH and currently holds exclusive licenses for the US and India.

The process was nominated for United Nations (UN) Most Energy Efficient Project Award. The traditional (and more expensive) nitrification and denitrification method for removing nitrogen requires large amounts of energy and methanol. The DEMON® process uses ammonia oxidizing bacteria and anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria (anammox) to efficiently and reliably remove ammonia. The DEMON® system uses 60 percent less energy, completely eliminates the need for methanol, and produces 90 percent less sludge than traditional systems. This reduces costs, is environmentally friendly, and features a low carbon footprint. The key to its success is the anammox based patented control strategy and patent pending biomass separation device that offers great system resilience and needs less oversight and maintenance.

In 2013 World Water Works and the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) of Virginia Beach, Virginia, received the 2013 Honor Award in the Environmental Sustainability category from the American Association of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. This award was in recognition of the implementation of the first DEMON® system in North America. HRSD’s York River Treatment Plant proved to be the perfect candidate for the DEMON® system because its existing sequential batch reactors and equalization tanks could be easily retrofitted. This allowed for a simpler installation, which took less than 4 months to install and has been successfully operating since implementation.

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2. Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that developed this nominated product or service:

Mark Fosshage is the CEO and President of World Water Works, Inc. Mark received a BS in Environmental Engineering in 1992 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and from there began to pursue his lifelong goal of having a career that would have a positive influence on the world. As an environmental engineer and entrepreneur, Mr. Fosshage founded a business focused on harnessing the resources from process and wastewater and returning clean water. He recognized the need for a company focused on ethical product commitment and continual innovation in technology. He attributes a good part of his success to passionately standing behind his company's products and dedicated team.