June 23, 2011 - International Mining

New Entrant Into Mine Waste Water Management

Dust suppression specialist Dust Control Technology has introduced a new product line of high-efficiency industrial waste water evaporators and services. DCT has specialized in atomization 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 DriBiss 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 customized software. According to CEO Edwin Peterson, the firm will supply both water fracturing and atomized 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 waste water contains high solids levels or large particulates. Water fracturing evaporators can be land-based or floating on pontoons," he said.

"Atomization is more complex, with specialized 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 are," Peterson continued. "This type of design is best for larger operations and greater volumes of waste water, where lower amounts of dissolved solids are present and particulates are small."

The larger size and weight of atomization designs typically dictate that they be located on land.

Collecting and managing weather data is critical to maintaining efficiency and minimizing 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, customizable 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 atomizing, 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 computerization. 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 over spray 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."