AG-POWER of COLORADO is a resource recovery facility that helps minimize potential waste by recovering ethyl alcohol from by-product or waste streams. Ag-Power's recovery facility distills ethyl alcohol from waste beer streams for sale into the oxygenated fuels market.  In so doing, Ag-Power is left with wastewaters or distillation bottoms that still contain the remaining forms of chemical or biological oxygen demand (COD/BOD₅).  Waste strength has been greatly reduced by stripping of the ethanol, but enough other components remain in the wastewater stream to create a potential surcharge cost for disposal to a Publicly Owned Treatment Works.

     Ag-Power has contracted Phoenix to provide a wastewater treatment system design capable of reducing the COD of its wastewater to below 300 mg/I, thus eliminating the city sewer surcharge. Phoenix has provided design and equipment specification for a high rate anaerobic biofilter that will reduce the wastewater COD to less than 300 mg/l and will supply over 16 million BTU per day of energy to Ag-Power boilers in the form of methane gas. This will reduce Ag-Power's energy costs by approximately ten percent.

      The project will pay for itself with less than one years' surcharge and energy savings. Ag-Power has realized significant construction cost savings by doing all construction in-house.