Problem:

A recycling company had liquid waste that was being disposed of properly. Since a waste stream does not generate income, it would be worth a look to see if usable resources could be extracted and sold.

Analysis:

There was a significant amount of sugar and ethyl alcohol in the waste stream, which could generate an income if separated. I knew how to separate the sugar and alcohol, but could it be done so that a profit could be made? I first estimated how much income could be generated from the extracted resources based on the total effluent of the waste stream. Next, I estimated the cost of building an extraction process. The estimate showed that the payback period for the project would be about 2 to 2.5 years.

Solution:

Developing a process to separate the sugar and alcohol was the easy part. Verifying the estimated payback period was the hard part. The best option for separating the sugar was to use a reverse osmosis process with a special filter designed for maple syrup concentration. The best option for separating the ethyl alcohol was to use a distillation process.

Result:

The sugar separation tests were successful. Just by separating the sugar alone, the financial payback was about 2 years. Unfortunately, the project was cancelled before ethyl alcohol separation testing could start.