MDG News and Updates

With more people staying home as we work to flatten the curve of COVID-19, residential plumbing systems are taking a bit of a beating. Our home plumbing, neighborhood collection systems, and large municipal sewer systems were probably not built for so many people being home at once. Do yourself and your neighbors a favor and think before you flush. So, what on the plumbing blacklist? As a rule of thumb, if it doesn’t dissolve (and stay dissolved) in water, it doesn’t belong in your toilet or down your drain. The list goes on and on, but to name a few… Rags, newspaper, shop towels, and paper towels. We know the toilet paper shortage will likely increase the temptation to flush these down the toilet. Grease. With eating out being less of an option, we’re cooking more meals at home. Restaurants have built-in grease traps that collect any grease that might go down the drain, but residential kitchens aren’t built this way. Please think twice before pouring liquid grease down your sink (or even your toilet). It will harden into a solid somewhere down the line, either within your drainpipes, septic system, or at the lift station – causing headaches for more than just you. Diapers, baby […]

Setting the Scene Does this scenario look familiar to you? If you work in municipal collections, of course it does! It’s a fairly standard lift station vacuum truck clean-out. While expensive and tedious, most municipalities have come to reluctantly accept this as an ongoing occurrence and expense.   How about this one? That’s right, you are looking at the top view of a confined space entry lift station pit that is 40+ feet down. This one is more unique, but if you’re familiar with this sight you’re also familiar with the hefty bill. The cost of three vac truck personnel and two city personnel onsite for 4 hours PLUS the hauling and disposal fees associated with a truck full of 4,000 gallons of grease and wipes will set you back a pretty penny. The COVID-19 Effect With people spending more time at home instead of at work, you can expect more wipes, toilet paper, grease and solids going down residential sewer lines that weren’t were designed to handle the load.  So, while the need for these sorts of cleanouts and expenses are budgeted to happen occasionally, they are going to become increasingly frequent. This increase in usage means more vacuum […]

Wastewater and collection systems with anaerobic areas, FOG, or sludge build-up provide the perfect environment for hazardous Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) production. Because of this, it’s not uncommon for concentrations to climb above 1000 ppm! To understand the risks, check out the chart below to better understand the dangers associated at every level. ** Click to Enlarge What should you do if you’re dealing with H2S? Enter a safe, effective solution: bioaugmentation! Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas is a by-product of sulfur-reducing bacteria (SRB), using sulfur compounds in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic environments). By disrupting growth conditions for SRBs,  Bacillus bacteria are able to reduce the production of H2S without the need for harsh chemicals. Connect with our team and we can get ahead of this dangerous and destructive problem together.

MDG continues to expand their Industrial and Institutional team into the Southeast region. Microbial Discovery Group LLC (MDG) is pleased to announce the hiring of Blake Scott as Southeast Industrial and Institutional (I&I) Account Manager. Blake will focus on servicing new Janitorial and Sanitation partners with our SporActiv™ product line. Blake brings a combination of technical and sales experience with a strong foundation in service and product expertise. Sona Son, MDG’s Director of Research and Development, explains “Over the past few years we have dedicated significant amounts of research and development towards making advances within the Industrial and Institutional Market. We’re happy to welcome Blake to our growing team as we expand our business into the Southeast.” “The SporActiv™ product line showcases our microbial expertise in the cleaning sector and is backed by trust, speed, and support,” stated Jenna Trusso, I&I Sales Manager. “Blake is known to show dedication to his customers through quality service and deep product knowledge. This dedication, amongst other skills, make him a great fit for our MDG team.” When asked what interested him about MDG, Blake explained, “I’ve been filled with excitement ever since I first met Michael King, MDG’s CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, […]

We have heard from wastewater facilities that a lot of rainfall in a short amount of time can really throw off their ability to effectively treat wastewater. There is just not enough capacity and too little time to adjust. Unfortunately, we predict that a new kind of rain is coming. With recent concerns and actions around COVID-19, we’re seeing: 3.33 times the amount of water-related to handwashing Extra flushing to get non-toilet paper items to go down the toilet The first one might be a little easier to estimate. The CDC recommends washing your hands for 20 seconds, or the equivalent to singing happy birthday twice. But therein lies the problem wastewater treatment plants could be facing. In normal circumstances, the average person washes their hands for 6 seconds. So, with the increase to 20 seconds, we’re estimating 3.33X more water usage for handwashing. A normal faucet will use between 0.5 to 2.5 gallons per minute (GPM). If we take the average of that range, 1.5 GPM, and multiple it by the increased time spent washing, 14 seconds, you get 0.35 gallons of extra water used per person each day. But we’re not done yet! We also need to consider the uptick in how […]

This message is for all of you cleaning at home and all the industrial and institutional (Jan-San) professionals; those of you who are cleaning our critical infrastructure facilities during this unique time. Thank you for your efforts and service. As a microbiologist who formerly worked for a chemical company who sold chlorine and bromine oxidizer products (similar to bleach), I suggest everyone take note of the CDC Recommendations to Clean AND Disinfect. These two common terms are both very different and important. According to the CDC, “cleaning refers to the removal of germs, dirt, and impurities from surfaces. Cleaning does not kill germs, but by removing them, it lowers their numbers and the risk of spreading infection. Disinfecting refers to using chemicals to kill germs on surfaces. This process does not necessarily clean dirty surfaces or remove germs, but by killing germs on a surface after cleaning, it can further lower the risk of spreading infection.” It’s likely that most people at work and at home are disinfecting right now, judging by the empty bleach shelves and inability to find Clorox wipes anywhere. While disinfecting is important, we need to be sure we are also cleaning. Cleaning removes dirt, debris, impurities and lowers the number of […]

Now more than ever, wastewater workers are absolutely essential. With an influx in residential water use, we see and appreciate the hard work being done to keep the world of water running as smoothly as possible. While our ability to travel is limited at this time, our technical service team is ready to help from afar. “This time of year is always busy for wastewater treatment plants, but the COVID-19 pandemic has definitely kicked it up a notch. Our team of experts are here to help!” explained Dan Romanek, Wastewater Technical Service Manager. “We’re here to share tips, recommendations, and other virtual support requests. The more the merrier!” If you have any questions surrounding biological treatment, please give us a call or shoot us a message. We’d love to help!

In a story as old as time, a new product comes to market, fails to make an impact, then fizzles out. Now, in talking with our customers, what we have learned is that some of the new “ground-breaking” solutions just end up causing more headaches than they’re worth. So, when the time came to expand our biological product offerings within the wastewater market, we sought to rewrite that story and began the process of developing our Biotifx® platform. Initially, our research and development team became laser focused on creating a top-notch product that would aim to serve a variety of needs for the wastewater community. Just as it’s sometimes hard to upgrade to that new piece of computer software – changing the process can be scary. Removing the fear and risk became the foundation of our Biotifx® program. We saw the importance of spending time outside of the lab to create a complete program that was grounded on what MDG does best: partnerships. PRODUCTS First, let’s quickly talk about our product innovation. It began with asking questions and then many more followed. Simply put: we listened. We heard about the challenges faced by facilities and got to work. Building on […]

MDG is excited to announce the OMRI listing for ZymoBac® GRO M50B, our solution for the Plant Health market. You can view ZymoBac® GRO M50B’s certificate here! “MDG is excited to announce that OMRI has reviewed ZymoBac® GRO M50B and has determined that it is Allowed for use in compliance with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Program (NOP)!”  Shannon Losing., Regulatory and Quality Manager of Microbial Discovery Group. What is ZymoBac® GRO? Our ZymoBac® GRO line chosen for its wide arrary of enzyme production to improve plant health and increase yields, and this listing now means that ZymoBac® GRO M50B can be used as a part of the USDA National Organic Program. We are proud that our Bacillus can be a part of organic agriculture, giving farmers a plant health product alternative to traditional materials. The organization that gives these listings is OMRI, the Organic Materials Review Institute. OMRI is a non-profit organization that reviews and lists products that follow the USDA in the National Organic Program. OMRI lists agricultural input products such as nutrients, pesticides, crop treatment, and animal feed additives. What does this listing mean for ZymoBac® GRO M50B users? OMRI informs producers about products that can be used in organic farming operations, making it easy […]

Throughout a facility tour at MDG you’ll walk past different sizes of the same equipment, one example, specifically of interest to many plant companies, is the 6-foot pilot spray dryer that stares up at a 34-foot electric production spray dryer. Flexibility in spray drying equipment size offers two intentional benefits: affordable trials and high-yield spore production.    What is Spray Drying? MDG’s Pilot Spray Dryer Spray drying is used in markets such as custom fermentation, plant health, animal agriculture, wastewater, I&I, aquaculture, human probiotics, landfill, and bioremediation. This process involves drying liquid droplets into a fine powder. A nozzle that turns a stream of liquid into a fine mist allows for droplets ranging in micron sizes to be achieved and produce fine particles as the water droplets dry. Fine particle sizes are required for applying product through in field spraying applications making it a popular drying method for agriculture products.   Affordable Trials  Field trials are a common step in bringing a new strain or product to market. Field trials require a small amount of high-quality product and bringing a product to market requires high amounts of high-quality product. While that may seem like stating the obvious, few manufacturers are set-up to execute on […]