Filters and other materials infused with MYCELX remove virtually 100 percent of hydrocarbons from water in a single pass. MYCELX reduces hydrocarbon levels in wastewater to less than one part per billion (ppb), well below the allowable limit of 15 parts per million (ppm) set by the Environmental Protection Agency's Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

The discovery of MYCELX is good news for the environment, providing a practical and effective solution for the industries that have a direct impact water quality

The Discovery

MYCELX is the first new technology to be introduced in the wastewater and oil remediation industries in a century. While many improvements have been made in activated carbon and standard filtering procedures, none have been more than tweaks to technologies defined in the past century.

MYCELX Technologies Corporation was co-founded in 1994 by Hal Alper, a former research director at a major chemical company, and John Mansfield Sr., a former petroleum industry executive. Work on the technology was inspired by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.

Filters and other materials infused with MYCELX remove virtually 100 percent of hydrocarbons from water in a single pass. MYCELX reduces hydrocarbon levels in wastewater to less than one part per billion (ppb), well below the allowable limit of 15 parts per million (ppm) set by the Environmental Protection Agency's Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

As the sole developer, manufacturer, and marketer of this new technology, MYCELX Technologies owns six process and compound patents and received two Chemical Abstract Services numbers, assigned to new molecules, for MYCELX: 173967-80-1 and 173967-81-2.

The discovery of MYCELX is good news for the environment, providing a practical and effective solution for the industries that have a direct impact water quality.

• Currently two-fifths of U.S. waterways are too dirty for fishing or swimming, according to the EPA.
  
   
• It has been proven that one drop of oily bilgewater can kill hundreds of thousands of lobster eggs.
  
   
• Author Andre Melé, author of Polluting for Pleasure, estimates that pleasure boats alone dump into our waterways "the equivalent of as many as forty Exxon Valdez disasters every year."
  
   
• A major cruise line was fined a record $18 million in 1999 after pleading guilty to illegally dumping waste oil and hazardous chemicals into the ocean.

The Technology

MYCELX gets its name from the term micelle, a chemical reference for spherical molecular structures that form in water and are extremely hydrophobic. Micelles can be thought of essentially as oil droplets in water. MYCELX keeps these micelles from forming thus micelle-x or MYCELX. By preventing the formation of such structures, MYCELX successfully removes many harmful contaminants, such as oil, gas, diesel, MTBE, PCBs, benzene, kerosene and other major pollutants from water. When given the choice between MYCELX and water, these contaminants abandon the water and affix themselves to the MYCELX molecule, allowing for fast, easy removal.

MYCELX is a cost-effective remedy for solving water pollution problems. For instance, filters infused with MYCELX are being used to treat stormwater that power companies must pump out of underground utility manholes. One particular company once hauled the water tainted with oils, grease, PCBs and metals to a treatment plant, where it was treated at a cost of 25 cents per gallon. Now they pump the water through a MYCELX filter unit onsite - which has lowered the cost to less than 3 cents a gallon and allowed them to pump the clean, treated water back into the sewer.

Saturated MYCELX-infused filters and other products can be safely incinerated and even used to generate energy due to their high BTU content.

The Revolution

MYCELX-infused products can be found in the industrial wastewater, marine and oil-spill remediation industries. The technology is impacting many arenas, including power generation, steel fabrication and aggregate supply companies, as well as the U.S. Armed Forces, commercial shipping, and marinas throughout the world. These examples are but a few of the many applications where MYCELX provides cost effective cleanup of traditionally difficult and expensive waste problems. MYCELX Technologies will continue to expand into new markets focusing on its ability to meet or exceed environmental regulations and constraints.

MYCELX technology will be part of the U.S. Marine Corps' Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAAV), providing the vessel compliance with the Uniform National Discharge Standards (UNDS). This use of MYCELX technology is paving the way for the use of MYCELX BilgeKleen - on-board bilge water filters infused with MYCELX technology - in the commercial and recreational marine industries.

In recent field tests at a major power company in the northeast, MYCELX removed polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from over 800,000 gallons of water. The PCB levels dropped to Below Detectable Limits, along with oil, grease, copper and hydrocarbons, in a single pass through a filter unit infused with MYCELX.

MYCELX passed California's rigid aquatic toxicity tests and has been found by the State of California Department of Fish and Game to meet their exemption criteria. California State Code allows exemptions to be granted to spill clean-up products that are not toxic to marine life.

MYCELX Technologies Corporation maintains a beta site at Tampa Bayside Marina in Tampa, Fla., where the company tests products for the marine industry. The marina is using MYCELX-infused products to help them earn the Florida Clean Marina statewide designation, which attests that the marina's day-to-day operations are environmentally sound.

A major automotive airbag manufacturer has utilized MYCELX filters to save itself over $10,000 dollars a year by reducing the RCRA Hazardous Waste - Chrome in it's weld test waste water stream.