SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Abtech Holdings, Inc. (OTC QB: ABHD) ("AbTech" or the "Company"), a full-service environmental technologies and engineering firm dedicated to providing innovative solutions to communities, industry, and governments addressing issues of water pollution and contamination, today announced that it entered into an agreement with DieselPure Inc. ("DieselPure") to incorporate AbTech's Smart Sponge® technology into all of DieselPure's™ filtration systems, a sub-micron coalescing filter technology that removes free and emulsified water and other contaminants from ultra-low sulfur diesel and bio-diesel blends in order to prevent engine failure.  Sales of the filtration system with Smart Sponge have commenced during third quarter 2013.  AbTech estimates the opportunity to distribute DieselPure™ filtration systems in the initial targeted markets alone to reach $100 million plus an additional $1 million attributed to the annual Smart Sponge addressable market opportunity.

The US and Canadian government's low sulfur and bio-diesel mandates were implemented to achieve reduced emission standards that require removing sulfur to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) and ULSD blended with bio-diesel.  The process of removing sulfur strips out some of the lubricating properties from the diesel fuel, necessitating the addition of artificial lubricants to avoid premature wear on engines.  Bio-diesel is a clean burning fuel that is a natural lubricant, and like all lubricants, raises the water holding capabilities of the fuel. The excess water quickly emulsifies, binding with the fuel. This accumulated water causes increased maintenance, and ultimately, failure of the engine.  DieselPure is currently the only certified filtration process that can effectively remove free water and emulsified water from ULSD and bio-diesel blends.

"By eliminating the free water and emulsified water to the certified level (official certification test is SAE J1488 ver. 2010), we are able to keep the fuel fresh indefinitely.  As all diesel fuels are moving towards increasingly lower sulfur content and higher bio-diesel blends, the problem of water buildup presents a critical issue.  Governments are mandating that increasing amounts of bio-diesel be added to diesel fuel, which can put mission critical engines at risk," said Peter Kerrin, DieselPure's President.  "Case in point, all 5,724 hospitals in the US have back-up generators that store on average approximately 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel each.  Due to potential water build-up and resulting engine failure, manufacturers, such as Caterpillar and Cummins, are recommending that the stored diesel fuel be replaced every six months to avoid generator failures and reduce maintenance, which could equate to more than 22 million gallons of diesel fuel replacement each year.  DieselPure™ would eliminate this expensive issue, as water is maintained well below the ASTM standard of 200 ppm. The DieselPure™ filter is engineered and tested to keep emergency fuel clean, fresh and ready upon demand."

Commenting on the AbTech Smart Sponge®, Peter Kerrin further stated, "Smart Sponge fully complements and supports our end-to-end solution.  As water is separated from the diesel fuel, it still contains some level of hydrocarbons.  Unless the water is treated to remove these hydrocarbons, costly treatment as a hazardous waste is required.  With AbTech's Smart Sponge added to the DieselPure filtration system, we can remove and solidify the remaining hydrocarbons, thereby enabling the water to be safely discharged directly to the sewer.

According to the terms of the deal, DieselPure Inc. will incorporate AbTech's Smart Sponge in all DieselPure™ filtration systems to treat the collected water prior to disposal.  Depending on the production capacities and utilizations, DieselPure™ systems range between $13,900 (1,250 gallon tank) to $169,000 (20,000 gallon tank), with filtration media expected to be changed every four months at a cost between $2,100 to $26,000 per install.  In addition, AbTech, a water pollution solutions provider, will also have the exclusive right to market DieselPure Inc.'s filtration system in the Western region of the United States, inclusive of Arizona, California, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.  Initial market focus will be targeted towards first responders, hospitals, banks and federal and state government facilities. 

Glenn Rink, AbTech's chairman and CEO, added, "Global environmental concerns create opportunities for companies that offer cost-effective, practical and executable solutions.  We believe our fit with DieselPure - from product through corporate philosophy - is highly synergistic.  This relationship affords us the opportunity to launch our industrial business segment through an already identified environmental issue that offers immediate growth opportunities, capable of generating margins very similar to those of Abtech's core product sales.  To date, DieselPure has placed three reorders totaling 1,500 lbs. of Smart Sponge and, while this is small, we expect this order flow to grow substantially through the remainder of this year and beyond. We estimate the market opportunity to distribute DieselPure™ filtration systems in just the initial targeted markets alone at approximately $100 million and in addition anticipate an annual addressable market opportunity for Smart Sponge product sales of approximately $1 million."

Jonathan Thatcher, AbTech's chief operating officer commented, "Over the past two months, DieselPure technology has been selected for over 250 first responder and financial institution sites on the East Coast, in which our Smart Sponge technology will be incorporated. As a result of the demand experienced in the East, DieselPure has awarded AbTech an exclusive distributorship for its technology throughout the Western half of the US, thus enabling AbTech to participate in DieselPure's opportunities on a larger scale in the Western half of the US while participating in all the installations, nationwide, with its Smart Sponge technology.  As of this month we have hired two highly qualified professionals with strong relationships in the target markets to coordinate the sales effort."