Dust suppression specialist Dust Control Technology has introduced a new product line of high-efficiency industrial wastewater evaporators and services. DCT has specialised in atomisation equipment since the company’s inception, and the new product family is considered a natural extension of the firm’s existing expertise. In addition to evaporation equipment, which will be marketed under the DriBoss® trade name, the company will supply ancillary components such as pumps, valves, controls, sensors and automation — all designed to withstand caustic and corrosive environments.
DCT plans to offer complete wastewater solutions, from initial site analysis to remote-operated and computer-controlled systems, including weather stations and customised software. According to CEO Edwin Peterson, the firm will supply both water fracturing and atomised mist equipment designs. “Fracturing is essentially splitting the droplets with a high-speed fan and propelling them into the air,” he explained. “It’s a technique that’s well suited to smaller areas, in which the wastewater contains high solids levels or large particulates. Water fracturing evaporators can be land-based or floating on pontoons,” he said.
“Atomisation is more complex, with specialised nozzles creating droplets of a controlled size, then using a powerful fan to compress the air through a tapered barrel and propel the mist over a large area,” Peterson continued. “This type of design is best for larger operations and greater volumes of wastewater, where lower amounts of dissolved solids are present and particulates are small.”
The larger size and weight of atomisation designs typically dictate that they be located on land.
Collecting and managing weather data is critical to maintaining efficiency and minimising drift in the efficient evaporation process, and weather stations from DCT will be able to monitor temperature, wind and humidity, delivering feedback to operators and/or a central computer for optimum control of direction, droplet size and flow modulation at each individual machine.
To provide strategic solutions tailored for each individual application, the company will market a sophisticated, customisable software package to manage a virtually unlimited network. The firm will also have the capability to specify and custom-design additive packages to enhance evaporation performance.
Like its line of dust suppression equipment, the DCT evaporation units are designed and manufactured by SMI, a global leader in water fracturing and atomisation, with more than 40 years of experience building high-performance equipment that’s now used for dust suppression. Together, the strategic partners have the resources to plan, design, engineer and install all aspects of water management, including equipment, automation and computerisation. The technology allows customers to reduce water volumes in an economical and environmentally responsible way. Waste water treatment operations can benefit from more efficient evaporation to reduce land-applied rates and grey water output, and some locations have been able to expand the capacity or extend the life of current facilities. The accelerated evaporation rates of the systems are also being used to design new facilities with greater wastewater handling capabilities.
Peterson said “the first step in providing an optimum solution is to assess details on the site, including wastewater volumes, both the peak amounts and averages. It’s also important to understand the chemical make-up of the water, such as dissolved solids and solid particles. The final input variable is weather data: temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, and pan evaporation rates.”
When taken together along with drift and overspray tolerances, Peterson’s team uses this information to recommend the equipment and infrastructure to best satisfy each individual customer’s specific needs. “It’s an approach that has brought us great success,” he concluded. “In our business, one size never fits all.”
