Filtration Facts

Heat Exchanger Fouling Prevented With Payback In Less Than Six Months

Heat exchanger fouling is a costly situation in terms of both (a) loss of water system efficiency and (b) maintenance costs, as well as (c) countless other problems it can cause in an HVAC or process water environment. When properly applied, filtration of the water and process fluids before they enter the heat exchanger can prevent fouling from occurring. For systems containing dirt, sediment and other solids, the savings can be huge, and can include water savings, energy savings, as well as others.

A multinational equipment manufacturer in the Midwestern U.S. faced this situation on their production line, where heat exchangers were repeatedly clogging and fouling due to scale in the process water. Among other problems, this made it very difficult for the heat exchanger to maintain the proper temperature for the water, wreaking havoc with the production process. The company tried using bag filters to solve the problem, but bags need to be emptied when they are filled. In this situation, the scale and other solids in the water was so great that the bags had to be replaced once every 5 weeks. The cost in materials and labor to change the bags was over $80,000 per year, and that did not include other costs being driven higher due to the lowered efficiency of the entire system or the lost production time.

A Better Filtration Solution
Frustrated by the costly and not very effective bag filter solution, the maintenance team at this large company continued to look for other solutions to their problem.  They found it -- a nearly maintenance-free filtration solution that also lowered water usage and kept the heat exchanger operating at maximum efficiency 24/7. It was a complete filtration solution that included a LAKOS Centrifugal Separator and purging system. The time it took for the reduced expenses of the new system (just heat exchanger cleaning costs alone) to pay back the costs to buy it and install it? Less than 6 months.

Download The Heat Exchanger Fouling Solution Case Study
Get more details about this situation, as well as the BEFORE and AFTER costs to clean the system. Heat exchangers are valuable pieces of equipment, and keeping them running efficiently will yield tremendous savings. Effective filtration is a great way to accomplish this goal.

Energy Efficiency Is Not Just A Class At University Of Nevada

LAKOS Scholarships And Webinars Promote Better Use Of Water

Centrifugal Separators Go From The Big Screen To The Gulf of Mexico

The idea of using centrifugal force to separate two elements of different densities has been around for many years. Despite the scientific explanation for centrifugal force and its real world applications in our lives, to some people it often sounds too good to be true. It is hard for some to believe that gravity and centrifugal action can be exploited in such ingenious devices that can work so efficiently and effectively. Such has been the case with the most recent application to appear in the headlines recently -- a centrifugal separator which might be able to help clean up the Deepwater Horizon gulf oil spill.

Not Just Movie Special Effects

A company co-owned by actor Kevin Costner has developed a centrifugal separator designed to remove crude oil from sea water, and centrifugal action is at the heart of the machine. The technology for the portable liquid separators was originally developed by national laboratories for defense purposes, but Costner and his business partners purchased the patent in 1990. Costner began working on ways to remove oil from water while working on his 1995 science fiction movie "Waterworld". British Petroleum has placed an order for some of the devices, in the hopes it can succeed where other techniques and products have failed.

Two Other Uses Of Centrifugal Separation

In addition to Costner's Waterworld-inspired oil-from-water separator, centrifugal separators are used to solve a number of less-theatrical problems as well, including: 

1. Medical uses - centrifuges are devices used in laboratories to separate liquids from other liquids (such as blood) for testing.
2. Solids-from-liquids centrifugal separators, used to remove sand, dirt, and other solids from water (as well as other liquids like cooking oil). LAKOS Separators are the leaders in this field, and are used in a variety of residential, water well, industrial, and heating/cooling applications.

LAKOS Centrifugal Separators

LAKOS centrifugal separators utilize the same fundamental forces of centrifugal action as Kevin Costner's device and medical centrifuges. Nearly forty years since gaining its first patent, LAKOS has been continuously innovating and improving upon this technology and the unique solutions it can provide.  Liquid enters the LAKOS Separator at an angle, and internal slots accelerate the flow so that solids heavier than water are moved (through centrifugal force) to the outer wall of a separation chamber and drop to the bottom of the separator, while clean fluid exits the separator. This can be better explained by watching an animation or video of the solids being separated from the liquid.

Free Download - Independent Testing Proves Efficiency

Just how efficient is a LAKOS Centrifugal Separator at removing solids from liquids? Up to 98% percent efficient, according to independent 3rd party testing. Get the free results of this testing today !

Data Showing Groundwater Use For Irrigation Yields Surprising Results

A reported 664 U.S. farms stopped irrigating acreage with groundwater in 2008, due to what owners said was a "shortage of groundwater". That was less than the 1,082 farms that made the same claims 5 years earlier. These are findings compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey and published in the July 2010 edition of the Water Well Journal magazine, a publication of the National Groundwater Association.

Combined with data from the 2007 USDA Census of Agriculture, the 2008 statistics reveal some interesting trends. These include:

• Of the 664 farms which said they had stopped irrigating, 87% were in either Idaho (273), Arizona (218), or South Carolina (88).
• About 26% of water wells used in 2008 were metered, up 61% from 2003.
• 62% of all irrigation wells in use had some type of backflow prevention device installed, an increase of 18%.
• No data was available regarding the use of irrigation filters or water well filtration systems, such as those used to prolong the life of a submersible or turbine pumps in a sandy well.
• The average depth of an irrigation well (243 feet) was just 2% deeper than 2003, and leading the way was Arizona (521 feet).
• Arizona was also third in longest hours of water well pump operation (2003 hours, down 33%) behind Nevada (2574 hours) and Connecticut (2383).
• The top 5 states with the largest number of wells in use for irrigation purposes were Texas (77,389), Nebraska (77,347), California (61,192), Arkansas (38,729), and Kansas (19,301).
• Among those top 5 states, California had the deepest average well depth (380 feet, but 123 feet to water level) and Arkansas had the shallowest (125 feet, but just 47 feet to water level).
• The most popular crops harvested among all those irrigated with groundwater were corn (over 10 million acres), soybeans (6.4 million acres), and cotton/wheat (each with 2.7 million acres).
• The crops with the greatest INCREASE of acres using groundwater for irrigation were vegetables (72%) and berries (61%).
• The crops with the greatest DECREASE of acres were tobacco (71% drop) and sugar beets (39%). 

The growth of biofuels and its perceived potential in 2008 (the year the study was conducted), combined with the fact most ethanol production is derived from corn starch appears to have had significant impact on the use of groundwater to irrigate corn crops in some states.

More Water Well And Irrigation Information

For more information about this and other groundwater or irrigation facts and figures, visit the National Groundwater Association or Irrigation Association websites.

Water Well Filtration Information

No matter how deep the well, or the crop being irrigated, sand can enter the system and wreak havoc with an irrigation system. This can occur in the well itself or other source water supply, and can not only shorten the life of a pump and lower efficiencies, but can also plug drip emitters and cause crop damage. For more information about keeping water well pumps operating at their best efficiency in sandy well situations, download the LAKOS SUB-K Pump Protection brochure (for wells pumping up to 100 US gpm) or PPS Pump Protection Brochure (for turbine pumps and submersibles pumping more than 100 US gpm).

Cleaner Cooking Oil Leads To Tastier Snack Foods

Potato chips aren’t the only snack food that tastes better and stays crunchier when cooked in fresh cooking oil. Corn dogs, donuts, and most deep fried foods benefit from the cleanest oil possible. So do yucca chips, a taste sensation whose popularity is growing by leaps and bounds. In many parts of South America, yucca (also known as casava or manioc) is a staple food prepared in many ways, including rolls, soup, and cake. The yucca is a tropical nutritious root vegetable grown in fields and resembles a long, thin potato. When deep fried as yucca chips, the taste has been described as “sweeter than potato chips” by some and “a little more starchy” by others. But everyone seems to agree that they taste best when deep fried in pure and clean cooking oil. And just as with potato chips, keeping the cooking oil clean and clear of crumbs and “fines” for as long as possible is a huge challenge. Some sort of filtration is needed in the deep frying process.

“Hands-Off” Cooking Oil Filtration Is The Answer

Strainers of different types and sizes are often used to try to filter the cooking oil, as well as variations of barrier filters. But none seem to work very well. One yucca chip producer in Ecuador tried them all, but was not thrilled with the results. Just when they thought they had tried everything they were told about a single piece of equipment that could:

• Improve the taste and crunchiness of their chips

• Keep the production line running longer without stopping

• Reduce cooking oil waste

• Use a minimal amount of energy.

They gave it a try -- a LAKOS Centrifugal Separator. It turned out to work even better than advertised.

Download the Yucca Chip Case Study 

Want to learn more? Download the Yucca Chip Case Study and read how a LAKOS Separator prolonged the usable life of cooking oil and reduced energy and maintenance costs. You will be stunned by how quickly the right cooking oil filtration system can pay for itself !

Recent Innovations In Farming and Food Processing Includes Filtration

There is a wise old saying that goes “Don’t Complain About Farmers With Your Mouth Full.” The implication being that farmers grow the food that feed us every day, and taking them for granted by minimizing their importance is somewhat foolish. Bad weather, uncertain water supplies, and government regulation are just three uncontrollable variables that make farming today a bigger challenge than perhaps any other time in history.

However, technological innovations in farm equipment and food processing have solved problems and overcome obstacles which had traditionally hurt efficiency and raised food prices. From state-of-the-art tractors to advanced fertilizer chemistry to genetically engineered fruit, science and technology have created a few more choices for farmers today than they have had in the past. New filtration products and techniques are among those choices.

Breakthroughs In Irrigation Technology and Source Water

Agricultural irrigation has seen some big changes over the years, moving from flood irrigation to sprinklers, drip, and microdrip methods. Products designed to maximize the efficiency of these methods and reduce water waste include sand media tank filters and more high tech devices like the Tracker Mobile, a smartphone program to help farmers remotely monitor irrigation pivots from a cell phone or any web connection. It was one of the recent Top 10 New Product competition winners at the World Ag Exposition in California.

Even before the water is ready for irrigation purposes, efficiencies in dealing with source water have increased greatly in recent years, including filtration devices such as those which prevent sand damage in submersible and turbine pumps.

 
Food Processing and Handling
Once a crop is harvested, the food processing phase begins, and this is where some of the largest leaps in innovation have occurred in recent years. Even a seeminlgy simple process like removing dirt from the harvested product has seen huge improvements in efficiency due to equipment design.

New Tomato Processing Case Study Reveals Huge Savings
For a certain tomato processing plant in central California, more than 15 years was spent trying different options to wash the tomatoes while using the least energy and least amount of water possible. The solution that finally solved their problems was a combination of centrifugal separators installed at strategic locations in their plant.

Want to learn more?
Download the Tomato Processing Case Study and get all the details. See why effective filtration systems are helping to make food processing much more efficient and saving us all energy and water at the same time.

Evaporative Condensers Reduce Costs of Refrigeration

It takes a LOT of energy to keep a popsicle frozen in the desert.  Come to think of it, it takes a lot of energy to keep a popsicle frozen in any conditioned interior space – in a desert or anywhere else.  

Grocery store owners know this all too well.  According to National Grid, refrigeration accounts for 44 to 62% of the energy consumed in U.S. grocery stores depending on the climate zone.  So when grocery store owners are looking to economize on energy, refrigeration is a smart place to start.  In fact, refrigeration system optimization can reduce energy use by 24% relative to standard practice.  This could account for a substantial increase in a grocery store’s profits, since energy expenditures are approximately equal to a typical grocery store’s profit margin.

Evaporative Condensers vs Cooling Towers
Evaporative condensers are an effective way to trim refrigeration energy cost in grocery stores, as well as in many other businesses.    These devices operate similarly to cooling towers in that they remove heat from the refrigeration system.  However, in cooling towers, the cooling water does not come into direct contact with the equipment being cooled; instead it passes through a refrigerant-water heat exchanger in the condenser to achieve thermal transfer.  Evaporative condensers, however, spray water directly over the coils and a fan blows air through the falling spray of water.  As the water evaporates, the remaining water becomes cooler through what is known as the latent heat of evaporation.  The cool water absorbs heat from the condenser coil, cooling the refrigerant into liquid form.  This is an energy efficient means of heat removal and can result in significant savings.  

Although evaporative condensers can be significant energy savers for businesses with high refrigeration needs -- particularly in more arid climates -- they come with one disadvantage.  They use a lot of water, and this water must be periodically “bled” off into the sewer to prevent the accumulation of excessive mineral deposits, such as magnesium, silica and calcium.  These minerals build up on the condenser coils, impairing heat transfer and thus efficiency.  In addition, the air flowing through the water spray contains many particles such as pollen, mold and dust that eventually accumulate inside the system.  Frequent bleed rates (along with chemical treatment) are used to combat these particulates.  The outside contractors that service cooling towers and evaporative condensers have been known to use tower bleeds liberally to prevent scale formation.  After all, they don’t pay the water bill.  Their top priority is to prevent scale formation—period.    

Water Waste

How much water is used as a result of evaporative condenser operation?  According to the Alliance for Water Efficiency, many systems used 50% more water than necessary.  

Filtration Can Reduce The Waste And Improve Efficiency
Cooling tower basin cleaning is one way to minimize the bleed rate/water waste on cooling towers and evaporative condensers. Effective filtration of evaporative heat rejection systems, which includes centrifugal separation, also helps prevent the accumulation of bacteria that leads to Legionnaire’s Disease. 

You can read more about this by downloading “Fighting Legionella with LAKOS”.

$1,000 Water Scholarships Still Available - Apply Today

There is just one week left until the July 1st deadline to a

pply for the Ben Everson Scholarships. Two $1,000 scholarships will be awarded to students that are planning on or already pursuing a college career with some specific focus on water. 

 

The scholarships are co-sponsored by LAKOS Filtration Systems and Laval Underground Surveys, who will each select a winner of $1,000 towards a college education. The scholarships are named after a long-term employee with both companies who treasured education and appreciated the value of efficient water use. The winning applicants will be the offspring of someone in the groundwater industry, and can be either a high school senior or already enrolled in a college or university.

Think of all the ways in which breakthroughs in water technology and innovations could help our world cope with scarce water supplies. Breakthroughs like:

• Water desalinization techniques

• A device that filters arsenic from drinking water

• An attachment to a submersible (or turbine) water well pump that prevents sand from entering the pump and thereby protects the impellers and other pump components from premature failure
  

Deadline To Apply Is July 1st --> Get The Application TODAY

Download the Fall 2010 Scholarship application today, or pass it along to someone you know!  Be sure to fill out the application and email it quickly! The deadline is approaching fast .

 

 

 

World Cup Soccer And Filtration Both Benefit From Teamwork

Soccer stars Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, and Diego Maradona each gave brilliant individual performances in helping their World Cup soccer teams to win previous FIFA Cup championships. But they have been the exception rather than the rule. Soccer is a team sport, and the champion team is usually the one which plays most effectively as a unit. The same goes for NBA greats Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and  many others. While individuals might shine in a role, it is the ability to work together that makes a championship team "greater than the sum of its parts".

The same is often true when looking at industrial and process cooling systems. One component may appear to be the key, but it is the way in which other components maximize the effectiveness of each other that leads to a high performing system. A chiller, heat exchanger, or cooling tower may be the "pivotal player," but a properly-sized filtration system will keep all three operating longer, at higher efficiency and effectiveness, and with less maintenance. A championship combination. 

Multiple Separators On The Same Team
There are situations when multiple filtration systems installed in series are greater than the sum of their parts. And situations when the volume and concentration of solids in a liquid are so great that two Separators -- acting as a team -- are needed instead of one. In this type of installation (sometimes called a "Super Separator"), a high concentration of solids is best handled by having the first Separator remove the first cut of solids (typically the larger solids, which displace the smaller particles in the separation barrel), followed by the second Separator, which will then remove the typically smaller solids that carry-over into the second unit. This is all accomplished in a SINGLE pass.

Benefits of this ONE-TWO punch of filtration includes:

• Greater solids-removal capability for higher solids concentrations
• Improved fine particle removal (after the first-stage Separator reduces the overall solids load)
• Increased overall solids-removal of both large & unusual solids and finer solids
• As a result, a two-or-three staged "Super Separator" system is often the most effective solution when there is (a) a large amount of solids to be removed and (b) there is great variation in size and weight between the solids. 

Typical situations for this type of filtration configuration might include steel mills, mining applications, and other industrial processes.

Case Study: Separators Installed In Series
A typical example illustrating this situation might be a steel forging mill in Chile, using two Centrifugal Separators in series to remove huge amounts of sand from the process water used in their cooling towers. Want to read more? Download this Case Study and get the details!