About Us
Separation Technologists is an envirotech company specializing in water and chemical recycling used in the parts cleaning & manufacturing industry. We have been providing water and chemical recycling solutions since 1986 and installed over 700 systems worldwide.
All of our systems are fabricated from the finest components and built in the USA.
Experts Recognized Worldwide
With a proven track record to solve your problem, Separation Technologists' pioneering experience resulted in recognition by the EPA as the "Leader in Closed-Loop Water Recycling". The distillation of our experience from over 700 installations of standard and customized designs is used to formulate your TOTAL SOLUTION.
Wide Variety of Separation Technologies
We offer you the most appropriate, single-source TOTAL SOLUTION. Our application engineers, with over 50 years of combined separation experience, evaluate all of the key separation technologies - mechanical filtration, adsorptive ion-exchange, membrane and evaporative technologies. Since we do not make membranes, but have access to numerous membrane designs (spiral, hollow fiber or tubular), and materials of construction (plastic, ceramic or other), we can offer an unbiased evaluation of your process problem. Whether a membrane, ion-exchange, evaporative or other separation technology is selected, it will perform at the lowest capital and operating cost.
Interpretation of Environmental Regulations
Small and medium sized companies typically do not have the staff to evaluate compliance with regulatory laws. Our staff can assist you in determining the appropriate program to comply with local, state and federal regulations regarding wastewater discharge, if any, and/or hauling and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste.
Laboratory Testing to On-Site Pilot Systems
Our on-site pilot systems ensure the performance of the system you selected. Matching separation technologies with a particular process chemistry can be crucial. Many applications do not require a pilot system, while others require an on-site system to verify system design. Our analytical approach and wide range of separation technologies can help you avoid purchasing inappropriate or wrong equipment.
Start-Up to Turnkey Installations
We offer start-up to turnkey installations and a full range of support services to meet your specific needs. We offer options ranging from simple telephone installation assistance to full turnkey installation with a 24 hour, 7 day a week service contract. A turnkey installation can be fully project-managed by our team, or project-engineered under your direction.
Our History
Separation Technologists, Inc. was founded in April 1986 as a national company specializing in recycling wastewater for electronic assembly operations.
In the following years the depletion of the ozone layer required electronic assemblers to change from CFCs (chlorofluorocarbon) to other cleaning processes, such as aqueous and semi-aqueous cleaning. This greatly increased electronic assembler's concern about the discharge of wastewater from their cleaning process. Since they did not discharge CFCs to the environment and were not familiar with the discharge of any wastewater, our closed-loop wastewater recycling design was very attractive. Separation Technologists pioneered this new process that later became the design standard in the industry. And it continued its leadership with new designs for related electronic cleaning processes.
As a result of Separation Technologists' leadership, in 1994 it became the only company receiving an award for "Leadership in Closed-Loop Water Recycling" out of more than 240 other companies and individuals who received EPA awards during the four years in which such awards were given. This original wastewater treatment design became the standard for all manufacturers of electronics assembly cleaning equipment in the world. About 700 wastewater recycling systems are now installed world-wide.
From 1995 on, Separation Technologists diversified into cleaning all kinds of parts. These applications include: cleaning oil contaminated parts (precision metal machined, stamped and related) by numerous cleaning operations, plating and ultrasonic; and emulsified oil removal.
Our Founder
In November 1983, John F. Russo led a collaborative effort with two other engineers to invent the first known closed-loop wastewater recycling system for an electronics assembly aqueous cleaner in the USA.
In June 1989, he was listed in the United Nations Electronics Cleaning Solvents Technical Options report as an expert adviser to the UNEP Committee (United Nations Environmental Program). Further development of the wastewater treatment processes led to a number of "firsts" in the industry, such as surface mount, semi-aqueous cleaning, and saponifier cleaning.
John has held various technical positions at Corning Glass Works, DuPont, and Polaroid Corporation. As a water application specialist since 1974, he worked on more than 50 different applications that involved designing, engineering, manufacturing and installing systems for tap water, high purity water and wastewater treatment. These systems utilized numerous mechanical filtration, adsorptive, ion-exchange and membrane separation technologies.
- Authored and co-authored more than ten technical papers on wastewater treatment for electronics cleaning and corrosion of metals.
- Wrote 28-page chapter, "Making Decisions about Water and Wastewater for Aqueous Operations," in the Handbook of Critical Cleaning, CRC Press, 2001.
- Extensively updated the chapter for the second printing in 2011
- Presented five workshops offering training in wastewater recycling and water treatment
He holds an A.S. in Metals Engineering, B.S. in Chemistry, an MBA, and CW-V certification (reverse osmosis, deionization, filtration, disinfection) from the Water Quality Association.
View our publications page to see articles written.