Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
toward sustainability in stormwater because of their larger campus goals and missions.
These “green” lagship projects also provide an educational aspect to the community or
students involved.
Green stormwater systems for single-family homes can be built for as little as a few hun-
dred dollars, while tens of thousands of dollars are spent to address rain gardens for major
parking lots, sports stadiums, or other large hard surface sites. Subsurface retention basins
can cost several hundred thousand dollars. By comparison, a catchment remediation sys-
tem with added Osorb would be a fraction of that cost at $25,000-55,000.
The estimated pricing for systems to be built by ABSMaterials using Osorb nanoglass to
remediate pollutants in the runoff range from $4000 to $155,000 with 20%-50% of the cost
of the system being the Osorb engineered soil media.
33.8 Acceptance of Engineered Materials to Assist
Distributed Stormwater Systems
One may argue that the nanomaterials industry has suffered from two obstacles in the
marketplace. The irst is the perception that nanomaterials are solely of interest to laboratory-
coat-wearing propeller heads. The second is a failure to communicate to a larger public
that all chemistry functions at the molecular surface or “nanoscale.” ABSMaterials has made
a concerted effort to make this communication a key element of the introduction of this
nanomaterial for stormwater management.
After column testing in 2010-2011 and a irst ielded pilot in summer 2011, ABSMaterials
employees began to contact potential customers and gauge interest—386 people from
stormwater or ecological interests were contacted between November 2011 and February
2012 in Ohio and western Pennsylvania. The people ranged from civil engineers to sustain-
ability activists. The goal of the calls was to explain the fundamentals of the materials and
explore the commercial acceptability of engineered nanoglass for stormwater usage/treat-
ments. Those who expressed interest to the point of requesting a proposal included URS
Engineering, Forest City Ratner Development, Wayne County Civil Engineering, Killbuck
Watershed Authority, Mahoning County Combined Sewer Authority, The University of
Akron Department of Civil Engineering, Wright State University, College of Wooster, City
of Euclid Ohio, Westminster College, Oberlin College, and the Nature Conservancy.
This wide-ranging and generally positive market prospecting effort was followed with
efforts to convert some portion of these prospects into customers. Systems have now been
built in Killbuck Watershed Authority and are in the engineering-permit phase at the
College of Wooster and Westminster College—11 additional proposals for solutions are
now in consideration for sites in four US states and two Canadian provinces. This conver-
sion rate of prospects at >3% of market is a very good conversion rate for an introductory
and novel product.
Beyond direct customer contacts, initial awareness relationships have already been
established with a number of federal agencies, developers, and regulatory bodies that can
inluence what materials are speciied by a building process. Soil and water conservation
districts (SWCDs) in both Franklin (Columbus, OH) and Cuyahoga (Cleveland, OH) coun-
ties have expressed interest in incorporating Osorb materials in future rain garden proj-
ects. Todd Houser, stormwater manager of Cuyahoga SWCD, has become a key advocate on
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