Clean TeQ Announces Tianjin BIOCLENS Factory Successfully Commissioned

MELBOURNE, Australia, June 24, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mr Sam Riggall, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Clean TeQ Holdings Limited (Clean TeQ or Company) (CLQ:ASX; CLQ:TSX; CTEQF:OTCQX), is pleased to announce that the Company’s BIOCLENS production facility in Tianjin, China, has been successfully commissioned and achieved steady-state operations.

In 2018, Clean TeQ acquired an encapsulated bacteria technology comprising technology licences and a production plant for the manufacture of bacteria encapsulated in a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) lens (BIOCLENS).  BIOCLENS offers significant opportunities in water treatment applications given the bacteria’s ability to break down and remove over ninety percent of harmful nitrates and ammonia from wastewater.  BIOCLENS, with encapsulated bacteria or enzymes, also has potential applications in the food and pharmaceuticals industries.

The bacteria are encapsulated in a plastic polymer in the shape of a lens. The lens shape and size are important as they ensure maximum biological activity while protecting the biology from potentially harmful environmental conditions.

BIOCLENS lenses and BIOCLENS lens manufacturing plant in Tianjin is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2bc21b08-479a-4253 ...

The Company has established the BIOCLENS production facility in China for its growing pipeline of potential water purification projects.  Having completed the transportation and installation of the lens manufacturing equipment to a facility in Tianjin, trial production runs started in Q3 2019.  Stable output at consistent quality from continuous operation was achieved in Q2 2020.  

In conventional biological purification processes, the salinity of the water supresses the activity of the bacteria and limits its ability to remove ammonia and nitrate to the desirable levels for recycling.  The BIOCLENS technology is highly amenable for application in the aquaculture sector because the polymer lens protects the bacteria to maintain high biological activity in this saline environment. 

Clean TeQ has now been awarded a contract to pilot the BIOCLENS technology to treat 100 cubic meters per day of wastewater produced by a shrimp farm located in Tianjin. The pilot trial run is scheduled to take place in Q3 2020, subject to COVID19 travel restrictions.  Aquaculture facilities around the world generate significant volumes of saline wastewater.  The pilot run will confirm that the BIOCLENS technology can successfully reduce nitrate concentration in the wastewater effluent to below 5 ppm.  Successful demonstration of this capability will allow Clean TeQ to enter the global aquaculture sector