Altiras Companies - Driving Savings in Secondary Chemical Products

Steven Marshall is a Houston, Texas, entrepreneur who has guided the Altiras companies for the past six years and developed leading-edge beneficial use/reuse strategies for chemical and fuel waste. Focused on establishing reuse markets for these by-products and co-products, Steven Marshall and the Altiras team have been featured in an article for Transportation and Logistics International magazine.

A chemical production facility that generates acetic acid was used as an example of the company’s services. Only the prime product containing more than 99.5 percent acetic acid is marketable, meaning that less-pure by-product is considered waste. Traditionally, this secondary product would be burned or otherwise disposed, actions which have environmental ramifications and neglect the product’s intrinsic economic value. 

Altiras buys those secondary products and sells them to customers who are willing to purchase the raw materials at a significant cost savings over the “pure” acetic acid product. In 2014, 99.5 percent-pure acetic acid was sold for 35 cents per pound, while the secondary acetic acid cost only 22 cents per pound.