IEC and NCS Partner to Advance Nutrient Recovery in the U.S.

Scaling Nutrient Recovery: IEC and NCS Partner to Advance Nutrient Recovery in the U.S.

By Cody Weese, P.Eng., Technical Sales Engineer, Industrial & Environmental Concepts, Inc. (IEC)

Nutrient Control Systems, Inc. (NCS) is a long-established innovator in nutrient-recovery technologies—especially in residuals processing systems used in agriculture, industrial wastewater, and biogas markets—leveraging nearly three decades of experience to extract nitrogen and phosphorus from digestate and other waste streams.

As nutrient recovery facilities increasingly adopt technologies such as ammonia stripping-absorption units, crystallizers for struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate), and thermal hydrolysis—or solute extraction systems—the effective management of biogas becomes essential.

That’s where Industrial & Environmental Concepts, Inc. (IEC) steps in. IEC is a North American leader in the fabrication and installation of high-quality geomembrane covers, liners, and gasholder systems that support biogas collection and temporary biogas storage on process lagoons, digesters, and tanks.

IEC’s patented gas-collection covers are typically installed on anaerobic digesters and feature an impermeable geomembrane and gas collection piping that reliably captures biogas for utilization or flaring. They are typically operated under a constant slight vacuum (< -0.5 inH2O).

Their free-standing or tank-mounted double-membrane gasholders, built from ISO-certified membranes, feature an outer membrane pressurized with ambient air to approximately +2-4 mbar, with integrated volume and pressure sensors, stainless-steel service boxes, and blower/PRV management for safety and control.

Technical Benefits & Synergies

When paired with NCS’s nutrient-recovery systems, IEC gasholders deliver multiple technical advantages:

• Consistent biogas capture: IEC’s controlled gasholder systems preserve methane and CO₂ produced during anaerobic processes, enabling cleaner, reliable off-gas capture and conditioning before nutrient extraction.

• Operational safety and reliability: Each unit installed handles all biogas level fluctuations. The inner membrane (bladder) ‘inflates’ with excess biogas, and ‘deflates’ as the gas is used, protecting NCS’s valuable infrastructure from biogas leaks and unexpected pressure swings.

• Operational flexibility: Integrated sensors and blowers controllable in real-time support stable pressure across NCS’s downstream nutrient-crystallizing or ammonia-capture units.

Together, IEC and NCS provide a compelling end-to-end platform: IEC secures, stores, and delivers biogas with precision and reliability; NCS transforms that biogas-laden residual stream into recoverable fertilizers like their cornerstone product, Nufiber®.

In effect, IEC covers, and gasholders form the biogas backbone for NCS’s nutrient recovery—a partnership accelerating deployment of nutrient recycling plants across the U.S. Northeast and beyond.

For more information, read our USA Biogas Magazine.