Xerox Makes Environmental Remediation Patents Available to All Through Eco-Patent Commons

Xerox Makes Environmental Remediation Patents Available to All Through Eco-Patent Commons

Extending its commitment to environmental stewardship, Xerox is making freely available a highly effective technology it developed to clean up its own contaminated sites.

The company has pledged 11 patents covering 2-PHASE Extraction & trade; to the Eco-Patent Commons, an initiative of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The technology, which can cut remediation time from years to months, has been used by Xerox to remove more than 98 percent of volatile organic solvents from shallow groundwater in contaminated sites.

The Eco-Patent Commons was organized to manage a collection of patents pledged for free use by companies and intellectual property rights holders around the world.  Its mission is to make it easier and faster to innovate and implement industrial processes that improve and protect the global environment. 

"Xerox has made a long-term commitment to environmentally responsible operations. The Eco-Patent Commons gives us the opportunity to share what we have learned," said Patricia Calkins, Xerox vice president of Environment, Health and Safety. "We developed the 2-PHASE technology more than 15 years ago to help us remediate sites more quickly and at less expense. We believe it will be a valuable tool for others, such as the local dry cleaners or gas stations, who need to clean up volatile organic compounds."

In the 1990s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Innovative Technology Development Team recognized 2-PHASE as a worldwide leader in cutting-edge technology, giving it the top rating for its class of remediation technologies.  In addition, it received an award from the Consulting Engineers Council of New York State.

The traditional way to treat sites where organic solvents have spilled involves first drilling a well to pump out the ground water and treat it, then applying a vacuum to the soil to remove and treat vapors.  The 2-PHASE Extraction system uses a stronger vacuum that simultaneously removes both the soil vapors and water – in the form of mist.  With it, Xerox has been able to reduce overall remediation times by as much as 80 percent. 

At one site Xerox had been pumping and treating groundwater for seven or eight years.  Eliott Duffney, program manager for remediation, reported that in the first weekend the 2-PHASE system was installed, it removed as much as had been done in three years of conventional pumping. 

For more than 20 years, Xerox has conducted an aggressive program to identify and clean up contaminated sites around the world.  These efforts include a voluntary program, begun in 1985 that identified 68 facilities and operations sites for remediation.  As of this year, all but 7 have been remediated.  More information on Xerox’s goals and accomplishments in environmental stewardship and sustainability can be found in the company’s Global Citizenship Report available here.