Tucson, Ariz., April 10, 2002 -- After three years of closely monitored performance at the Los Angeles Convention Center of Zeta Corporation's Zeta Rod(tm) system, the convention center won a city-wide environmental award and realized a three-year accumulated savings of $150,000.
In making the announcement, Zeta President M. Michael Pitts, Jr, Ph.D. said that the City of Los Angeles Quality and Productivity Commission, after an eight-month evaluation process, singled out 20 city departments out of 114 applicants for honors in the categories of Customer Service, Environmental, Entrepreneurship, E-Business and Innovation and Creativity.
The Los Angeles Convention Center facilities staff won the Environmental Award for "the elimination of scale and corrosion cleaning, increased employee safety, reduced water consumption, longer equipment life and an annual savings of $50,000" in the operation of the huge building's chillers and cooling towers.
The core of the system is the Zeta Rod(tm), a patented ceramic electrode using electrostatic dispersion of minerals and organic colloids instead of chemicals to prevent scaling, biofouling and corrosion in a wide variety of industrial water treatment applications.
The powerful electrostatic field generated by the Zeta Rod(tm) causes particles and microbes in the water to repel each other, thus preventing them from sticking together or adhering to tanks, piping and other wet surfaces. If deposits are already present, the Zeta Rod may be used to loosen and remove them.
During the first year and one-half of the application, a total of 11 Zeta Rod electrodes were installed to protect the large cooling towers, a 500-ton chiller and two 1,250-ton chiller systems, in the West Plant of the 870,000-square foot convention center.
Meanwhile, similar cooling equipment in the South Plant continued with its usual chemical water treatment procedure. At the conclusion of the 18-month period, a third-party consulting firm concluded that in the West Plant treated by Zeta Rod "all data trends appear to be showing program improvements across the board" and that "all (corrosion) coupons analyzed show corrosion rates below industry standards."
* A coupon is a small metal test strip by which corrosion rates can be calculated. Impressed and encouraged, the Los Angeles Convention Center maintenance staff elected to continue the application for another 18-month period during which the Zeta Rod system would be employed exclusively in both West and South Plants.
At the conclusion of this final period, the staff received congratulations from the City's Quality and Productivity Commission for locating and adopting a system that eliminated the use of chemicals, noting "these chemicals are dangerous to handle and drained water may present a hazard to the environment."
In describing how the Zeta Rod works, Dr. Pitts explained that the ceramic rod when grounded and placed in the environment of water, piping and vessel walls, forms a capacitor that alters the electric charge of foreign particles in the water and causes them to repel each other.
Although a power supply of 110 volts AC is converted to 35,000 volts DC, the available current in the system is very low and completely safe for its operators, Dr. Pitts advised.
Further information about this and other industrial applications of Zeta Rod is available by visiting the company's website: www.zetacorp.com.
