Titan America Acquires Separation Technologies Inc.

(Norfolk, VA) August 16, 2002 -- Titan America, headquartered in Norfolk, VA has acquired STI Holding, Inc., the parent company of Boston-based Separation Technologies, Inc (STI). STI has developed proprietary technology and owns facilities at select coal-fired power plants that process and recycle fly ash from coal combustion. Titan America has held a 20 percent ownership in STI since 1999. STI will operate as a new business unit of Titan America, with Joe Teves, who has been its CEO since 1996, as President.

Under the trademark ‘ProAsh’, STI produces a processed fly ash, used as a pozzolanic additive to cost-effectively increase the durability, quality and strength of concrete. Fly ash, a very fine powder, is a natural by-product of coal combustion, which power plants are forced to landfill, if they cannot recycle to other uses. At certain steady and low levels of carbon content, it is a valuable concrete additive. However, stricter clean air (NOx) emissions requirements, have caused the carbon content of raw natural fly ash to increase and fluctuate, rendering it unsuitable for concrete. STI’s patented technology separates the raw fly ash into a consistent low-carbon product, which is sold to concrete producers, and carbon-rich material, which can be recycled as a supplemental fuel at the power plant or elsewhere.

“Titan America believes that the leading-edge technologies developed and commercially proven by STI offer valuable economic and environmental benefits for the power industry, concrete producers and the health of the planet,” said Titan America CEO Aris Papadopoulos. “STI takes a waste product and recycles it into a valuable concrete additive, plus a supplemental fuel source. In doing so, power plants avoid expensive and risky landfilling and related transportation costs. It’s a classic win-win for everyone concerned.”

In 2001, STI produced about a half million tons of fly ash at three processing plants in Rhode Island, Maryland and North Carolina. It has contracts to build an additional plant in Florida, to expand existing facilities, and is in the process of supplying its first overseas processing unit to a joint venture of Lafarge and Scottish Power. The technology has potential applications beyond fly ash.

“STI is in a business that is capital intensive and driven by the demand for concrete,” said STI President Joe Teves. “By joining the Titan family, STI can take advantage of growth opportunities in areas such as Florida where there is a very high demand for concrete but no fly ash production facility.”
Titan America is one of the premier cement and building materials producers in the Eastern United States and operates all of the U.S. assets for its parent company, Titan Cement, headquartered in Athens, Greece. Titan Cement is publicly traded on the Athens Stock Exchange.

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