What kinds of contaminants does a cyclonic filter cones remove?
How does a cyclone work?
What about the other 2% of stuff you don't filter?
How durable are cyclonic filter cones?
Can you clog a cyclonic cone?
I heard that cyclonic filtration doesn't work. How do Encyclon high efficiency cyclonic cones differ from low efficiency cyclones?
Where is the filtration equipment manufactured?
Why is a modular system important?
Do boat wash recycling systems require complicated electrical controls?
Why do I need such a large filtration capacity?
What factors should I consider when designing a wash pad?
How large of tank(s) should be used with the system?
Do I have to place a dirty water tank below the ground?
Can the system operate without a dirty tank?
What is the output water pressure from the self prime unit?
How does cyclonic filtration prevent Bacterial odors?
What other chemical problems can I expect with recycling wash water?
Does cyclonic filtration increase the temperature of the wash water?
How do I protect my system from freezing?
How often do I have to add water to my Encyclon system?
How do I handle rainwater?
What happens to propylene glycol antifreeze discharged onto the pad?
What do I do with the swarf (trash) removed by the filtration system?
Are Encyclon units easy to service for Maintenance?
Do Encyclon
systems really use no filter cartridges or media?
There is no filter cartridge used in the Encyclon filtration system. It's simply not required with the high efficiency
cyclones. There are no dirty filters to change. There are no expensive filter cartridges to buy. It's surprising
how little debris our competitor's canisters actually hold when their filters become clogged to require frequent
cartridge changes.
Several of our competitors include cost estimates of $3 to $10 per boat for filter media expense. Our competitor's filter cartridge estimates probably do not include UPS shipping charges
or the time employees spent; surfing the web to order the cartridge, checking their credit card balance on line,
walking across the marina to the filtration unit, walking back to the maintenance shed to look for a spanner wrench
to open the canister top, walking back to the filtration unit, unscrewing the canister top, removing the filter,
stopping at the rest room to clean their hands, walking to the parts department with the used cartridge to see
if they have a new cartridge, discussing last night's game, cleaning the water mess up on the counter, taking a
coffee break, looking around the Marina for the spare cartridges that were supposed to be in maintenance, moving
boxes in the back to finally find a new cartridge, walking back to the filtration unit, installing the filter,
looking the O-ring leak on the canister top, walking back to maintenance for silicon grease and another O-ring,
driving to town to buy an O-ring at the supply house, discussing the O-ring and the game at the parts counter,
buying a new tool on display but driving back to the marina without the new O-ring, stopping at the quick store
to by smokes, stopping at the maintenance office, surfing the internet for a source for large O-rings, checking
e-mail, then taking an early lunch, cleaning the old O-ring, putting the cartridge in backwards, re-priming the
system, removing the canister lid again, turning the cartridge around, installing the O-ring again, tightening
the lid, cross threading the lid, removing the lid, retightening the canister lid, re-priming the system again,
walking to the dumpster with the dirty cartridge to take a smoke break.
Even if their media costs were really $10 per boat and it takes 30 minutes to wash a boat, then at $20 per hour,
that almost equivalent to paying another employee wages. Why not save thousands of dollars each year with a system
that uses no filter media?
Cyclonic filtration removes ups to 98% of all suspend solid particles down to 5 microns or .00019 inches. The filtered particle size is smaller that a human hair split (21) times. Encyclon cyclonic cones generate a centrifugal force at 7,500 times gravity so the heavier copper items found in marina waste water are filtered at the most efficient rate. The Encyclon cone has a 98% efficiency rating on the first pass, however since the water passes through the filter multiple times, the 98% efficiency is effectively multiplied endlessly.
If you really need additional filtration, you could add a supplemental 1-micron bag filter using a clean pump/tank after the cyclone filter. Or you could specify (4) of the optional 5 gpm Encyclon cones with 3 micron filtration instead of our standard 5-micron cones. At some point you might want to consider doing a cost benefit analysis.
Dirty water enters the side of the cone with an input pressure of 35 PSI and clean water exits the top of the cone with an output pressure of less than 10 PSI. The dirty particles are continuously discharged in a 0.3 gpm spray from the 0.25 inch diameter orifice at the bottom of the cone that also injects air back into the cone. If you would like to learn more about what happens inside our cyclonic cone, click here
Remember that the 98% of the cyclonic filtration happens during the first pass. Water from the first pass is dumped into the dirty tank, and is filtered again for other passes. The total amount of water in the dirty tank is usually filtered during a cycle that is repeated every 30 seconds depending on tank size. Anything left over after multiple passes eventually falls to the bottom of the dirty tank except for floaters which end up on top of the tank unless they are attracted to a heavier particle to be recycled through the system. You will find that even the 98% efficiency is much better than what many other filter systems can offer.
You will find that our cones require very little maintenance. They were initially designed for removing abrasives and steel from industrial grinding coolants and filled a hopper full of swarf each day. These industrial applications demanded a quick change, low cost, and durable ceramic cone. Our industrial systems remove thousands of pounds of abrasive grit and steel particles from water based coolants each day, so removing a few pounds of paint chips with copper is relatively easy stuff.
Eventually the discharge orifice will wear from the abrasion of the dirty particles being discharged. Encyclon uses an easy to change low cost ceramic tip for the cone discharge orifice. Industrial users typically change these tips each year after filtering thousands of pounds of abrasive and steel particles. These tips can be expected to last much longer for marina applications. The $65 cost of a ceramic tip is a bargain when compared to cost and labor for frequently changing our competitor's filter paper, bags, or cartridges. Encyclon replacement cones are readily available and you can count on being able to get parts into the future. With hundreds of industrial installations in service worldwide, Encyclon has been supply filtration equipment since 1974.
All swarf that is removed must pass through a 0.25 inch diameter hole at the end of the ceramic cone. The swarf is ejected from a centrifugal force of up to 7500 times that of gravity developed inside the cyclone. Any particle larger than the hole in the ceramic cone will block the flow. The key here is to prevent larger particles from reaching the ceramic cone. We recommend an inlet strainer basket with 1/8 diameter perforated screens be utilized in the sump. Cones can also easily be unclogged without tools by simply unscrewing the ring attaching the ceramic to the upper cone.
The Encyclon self prime unit is manufactured in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA. Replacement parts are also shipped from this location.
Since Marinas each have unique facilities and locations for boat washing, each wash system must have important differences. Methods for removing boats from the water include travel lifts, cranes, trailers on ramps, and fork lifts. Some launching methods require boats be washed near the water, but after boats are placed on a trailer they might be moved to a remote wash area. Marina wash pads have different sizes, slopes, drain access, climates, prevailing winds, pressure washers, and electrical access. Only a modular system can be adapted for each unique application.
Our building block design lets you customize the Encyclon cyclonic filtration system for your wash pad. Our standard self-prime (SP) unit has a very small foot print of only 24 x 32 inches that will meet the needs of most marinas. We can build a larger system for whatever tank size and filtration capacity you may require. If you need us to provide tanks with your system, we can add them. If you need more capacity than our standard 20-gpm flow rate, we can use multiple cones. If your customers discharge bilge water on your pad, we build several types of oil skimmers that can be added to your system. We have even added magnetic separators, bags, and refrigeration units for some of our industrial customers. Our standard SP system includes casters, but we can skid mount it. We also offer a system mounted on a trailer.
Water recycling systems shouldn't be so complex that they require a PLC computer to control the multiple components of some of our competitor's filtration process. What happens if when the power spikes or water hit the control panel? How do you get back to washing boats when their whole system crashes and the program must be reloaded? Encyclon boat wash recycling systems use centrifugal force generated in a cyclonic chamber to separate bottom cleaning residue from pressure washer waste water. Because Encyclon uses a very simple process, there are no complicated PLC controls required, just one on/off switch. Simply connect the filtration unit to a standard marina dockside power adapter using the included cord.
Encyclon filtration systems start with 20 gallon per minute (gpm) capacities. While it is true that pressure washers usually use less than 5 gpm, you may also want to add a flushing line in drain pipes to help keep lines clear. The 4:1 capacity ratio insures that you always have a supply of clean water ready for the pressure washer and allows for recycling the water in the dirty tank or sump for multiple continuous filtrations.
If you find that you still need extra capacity, it can be increased to 40 gpm with the addition of a second cyclone on the self prime unit. The extra filtration capacity also can be used to handle extra rain water mixed with pollutants from the wash pad that has been added to the system. With some pad layouts, boat washing is still possible during rain storms.
Waste water recycling systems will require a wash pad to collect the water for processing. You should have an impervious wash pad surface of Concrete, Asphalt, or Plastic. Most permanent installations use concrete pads with drains installed.
Sump Required - The pad should ideally be sloped so that wastes water flow to a central discharge point called a sump. Inside the sump you should include a strainer basket to prevent large trash from entering the filtration system.
Size the pad for the only largest boat to save space, minimize construction cost, and reduce rainwater accumulation, This pad should then allow additional area or windscreens to contain the overspray (drift plumes) within the confines of the pad surface. It is important to design your pad to prevent waste water from contaminating the ground water in your area.
Since much of the debris will remain on the pad your will either have to include flushing lines or sweep remaining debris from the pad at the end of the day. Trench and pit should be easy to access and clean with smooth surfaces and shallow trenches.
You may want to have your pad and cyclonic system located near a drain line for any infrequent discharges that may be necessary. Check if your discharge requires a permit from the local sewer authority or sewage treatment plant and any if other pretreatment is required before disposal.
If boats are only washed at the end of the season while hanging from a travel lift, a temporary wash pad can also be constructed of plastic tarps draped over beams or plastic drain hose, with a sump pump to collect the water from a low spot.
We like to see a tank that can handle a minimum of 2-1/2 times turn-over per minute. So for a 20 gpm cyclonic system you need for a minimum a 55 gallon drum as a tank. The standard tank used with our trailer mounted system has a 125 gallon capacity. If you add more cyclones, you will need a bigger tank or multiple tanks. Larger tanks have advantages: (1) Water temperature is more consistent. (2) Its easier to manage water chemistry, (3) There is room for some rainwater, (4) Water does not have to be added to the system as frequently.
The water from the strainer basket/drain must flow back to the dirty tank. The most trouble free solution directly connects the drain pipe with a gravity feed to the dirty tank. As an alternative, the drain pipe could be connected to a small sump that is pumped up to the dirty tank. Although this adds an extra component to the system, it decreases the amount of excavating required during installation.
A standard 1/3 hp consumer sump pump with attached float usually has enough capacity at around 2,000 gph to evacuate the sump and pump up to an above ground tank that is not higher than 15 feet. You can expect it to cycle about every (6) minutes considering only the discharge of the pressure washer. Of course system reliability will be decreased with the addition of non-industrial type pump, and you will need to keep the float switch, pump and sump clear from large clogging debris.
The purpose of dirty tank is to supply a constant supply of water to the cyclone pump otherwise the dirty tank is not required. The cyclone pump will always have a sufficient supply of water if part of extra clean cyclone output is plumbed to the sump. The dirty water expended from the pressure washer mixes the clean water in the sump. If the Encyclon filtration unit can be placed less than 15 feet from the sump, the self-priming cyclone pump can be used to directly evacuate the sump without the requirement for an additional sump pump.
The self prime unit discharges at the top of the framework at an elevation of 50-inches from the base with a head pressure of (1.8) psi based only on the height. The cyclone typically develops an average pressure of (7) psi as indicated on the (0 to 10 psi) output gauge. You can usually expect just less than (9) psi input pressure for your pressure washer with up to 20 gpm of water available. The extra water that is not used is diverted to the tank to be recycled through the unit.
You cannot decrease or restrict the diameter of the pipe used in close proximity to the cyclone discharge without also increasing backpressure on the cyclone. At indicated gauge pressures in excess of 10 psi, the efficiency of the filtration is significantly reduced. If your application needs a higher output pressure for some extended flushing or supply requirements, then you will need to divert the cyclone output to a second clean tank and use a smaller second pump to develop whatever pressure is required. This additional clean tank must be plumbed to overflow back to the dirty tank.
Our cyclones continuously aerate the coolant during filtration to check anaerobic bacterial growth with a supply of oxygen. You can hear this air being drawn into the end of the ceramic cone during operation. Living organisms need oxygen to maintain the metabolic processes that produce energy for growth and reproduction. The dissolved oxygen in waste water determines whether the biological changes are brought by aerobic or by anaerobic organisms. Aerobic bacteria use free oxygen for oxidation of organic and inorganic matter and produce innocuous end products. Anaerobic oxidation however, causes the reduction of certain inorganic salts such as sulfates that cause bad odors. Aerobic organisms are highly desirable to keep anaerobic organisms in check. Since both types of organisms are present in waste water, unless aerobic bacteria receive proper amount of oxygen, the anaerobic bacteria will take over and cause a bad odor.
You should run your system often enough to not allow the water to become stagnant. If you don't run your system frequently enough to kill anaerobic bacteria, you may wish to consider installing an ozone generator tube and bubbler that is often part of hot tubs to avoid expensive chemical treatments
Many of our competitor's filtrations systems just kill all the bacteria using expensive chlorine, biocides or ozone generators. A few use chemicals to change the water pH to a level that is not only harmful to bacteria, but can be harmful to gel-coat and operators. .
You may have to add chemicals for pH adjustment to neutralize your water tank. You can find most of these chemical at swimming pool stores. Accumulated salts are not removed by any physical filtration method. These salts will build up over time on hard surfaces and may cause corrosion through electrolysis if the system is not protected by sacrificial zincs.
Oils, hydrocarbons and soaps are not removed by cyclonic filtration. These items are not normally part of the pollutants generated by washing the bottom of boats. It is possible to add an Encyclon Oil Skimmer to remove oil, but this unit is only effective during slack periods. Minimize petroleum byproducts: do not empty bilge water on the wash pad.
All water pumps add waste heat to the water they pump as part of the horsepower used. The cyclonic pump adds about half the amount of expected pump heat because of the air injected through the cyclonic cones. More significantly, the temperature of the water in the tank is also effected by the temperature of the wash pad surface. The returning dirty water is either heated in summer or chilled in winter.
We recommend that you drain and blow down the system prior to any long term winter stowage. Propylene glycol can be added to the self prime's cyclone pump. There is also a drain plug that can be used for draining the pump. For short term protection when it is not desirable to winterize the unit, continual operation of the system will usually prevent freezing as long as the water is flowing and temperatures do not drop to subfreezing levels. The equipment may also be installed inside a small shed with a source of heat.
If a marina washes 200 boats averaging 30 feet, by the end of the season they can expect to use 17,600 gallons of water. Marinas can expect about 10 to 15% of the water used to be lost to evaporation, so make-up water will need to be added to keep the tank at the desired level. Surface water evaporates at approximately 1.5 gallons per square foot per month during a mild November (Temp 52ºF). For a 1,500 square foot pad, the loss of about 2,250 gallons due to evaporation during the month (unless it rains), will leave about 15,350 gallons of waste water to treat.
In a perfect world the amount of water lost through evaporation would equal the amount gained through rain water. For the most part, except for occasional droughts and floods, things work out this way in our nation's waterways, but dams with reservoirs are still often required. It could work the same way in your Encyclon system but you would need a really large reservoir tank to buffer daily variation. Typically systems should require make up water added on hot summer days. The best designed systems plan for handling extra rain water added to the system from the wash pad.
How do I handle rainwater?
For solutions that
do not allow washing boats in the rain:
(1) The pad must be either covered, or (2) The pad must be cleaned after each use and the operator must open a
system bypass when it is not in use to divert rainwater. Covering the pad with a roof eliminates the possibility
of washing sailboats with a mast up and covering the pad with a tarp is not usually very practical. Of course the
problem with solution (2) is that it depends on the diligence of your operator to both wash the pad and open the
system bypass.
Each of these problems can be made less operator dependent, but at a cost of increasing the complexity of the installation.
Cleaning the pad could be automated by installing extra pumps and flushing lines. There are several systems available
that can automate operating the diverter valve prior to rain storms, or just after the pad is flushed by rain.
Most of these automatic solutions are somewhat complicated and usually involve special drain grates with automatic
diversion valves controlled by programmable logic controllers. Although Encyclon does not offer these automated
solutions, Fox Environmental
specializes in this type of additional equipment. These types of "first flush"
systems are very popular with military installations and are often utilized as part of these equipment wash pads.
These diversion valves can be designed to work with
the Encyclon filtration system to offer a fail safe assurance that your pad drain diverter bypass is always in
the correct position. Without using these types of automated systems it is very important to train and monitor
your operators on the correct use of a manual rain water bypass. A failure by employees to follow instructions
could put your marina out of compliance if water was sampled at the beginning of a rain storm.
For solutions that
handle pressure washing during the rain:
Our solution (3) requires that you capture the rainwater from the pad, filter the captured rain water and either
reuse the rainwater or discharge this filtered rainwater to an approved sewer system as specified in your discharge
permit.
Annual rainfall varies greatly between areas with about 36 inches in Cleveland to over 52 inches for Miami. A heavy
rain is defined as rain fall between 0.16 and 0.63 inches per hour. We only consider this 0.63 amount because at
some point, you probably should not be washing boats in thunderstorms.
A typical 50 x 60 foot wash pad has 3,000 square feet of surface area to collect water. If it rains 0.63 inches
per hour, this pad can collect 157 cubic feet or 21 gallons of water during each hour of heavy rain. If your wash
pad is located in Miami then you would be collecting 13,000 cubic feet or 1,737 gallons of water from the pad each
year. These numbers become especially important when selecting tank sizes. With our standard 20 gallon per minute
filtration rate, cyclonic systems already have enough excess capacity to filter the rainwater collected at a 60:1
ratio. Unfortunately at some point unless the tank is really large, you may run out of tank capacity and will be
forced to discharge the clean filtered water, if you continue pressure washing during periods of rain.
The reasonable solution for a system designed to pressure wash in the rain uses a second appropriately sized clean
tank that is fed by the cyclone discharge. Near the top of this second clean tank there is an overflow that equalizes
the water level between the dirty tank and this clean tank. In this clean tank, a few inches above the equalizing
line, there will be an overflow line that keeps the tank from overflowing during periods of heavy rain. This overflow
line will feed clean filtered water to an approved discharge point.
Propylene glycol antifreeze purged on the wash pad during engine winterization, unless it is evaporated before pressure washing, will be inadvertently added to the pressure washer water recycling system tanks. While the Encyclon system can effectively filter the solids in the propylene glycol/water solution, it cannot separate the propylene glycol from the water. Although it is not usually a problem, you should also check with the manufacturer concerning propylene glycol compatibility with seals in your pressure washer.
Even though propylene glycol is FDA approved safe as a common food additive that often provides a smooth texture in ice cream and salad dressings, it may not be safe enough to disharge. The EPA has a history of enforcement actions against industrial polluters for propylene glycol discharges into bodies of water. In one case, General Electric's Waterford Silicone plant had to pay a $234,000 penalty to settle a NY environmental action that included a "small quantity of propylene glycol discharged into the Hudson River" on 10/22/96. Another verdict incarcerated David Ortiz for 12-months because industrial waste water containing propylene glycol was dumped into a storm sewer that drained into the Colorado River on 6/18/02. There are also dozens of airports around the USA that have pending EPA enforcement actions in process for propylene glycol used for deicing wings that subsequently found its way to streams. In one instance in Iowa, the EPA held that only 150 mg/l was the maximum daily discharge limit for propylene glycol loading into a stream. To put that amount in perspective, this discharge limit is equivalent to about 1 quart of propylene glycol in the 1,731 gallons of rain water collected for the entire year on a typical 50 x 60 foot wash pad located in Miami. Fortunately, I could find no evidence in my search of EPA enforcement actions that any Marina has yet to be fined for a propylene glycol discharge.
Propylene glycol discharges create a high Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and can deplete oxygen in water bodies. Other types of BOD sources include tree leaves that fall into water and decay, and other discharged solids, as they may also result in heavy oxygen consumption. Since the Clean Water Act includes "effluent limitations relating to biochemical oxygen demand" (P.L. 97-440), it might be a good idea to prevent propylene glycol discharges.
If you opt to wash boats with a water solution that includes a propylene glycol mixture you might still have enviromental problems. Even though propylene glycol/water solutions released to the atmosphere readily undergo a rapid photochemical oxidation with hydroxyl radicals having an estimated half-life of 0.8 days when pooling on a typical hard surface. The vapors created as a by-product of pressure washing drift plumes could be defined as an air pollutant in several states (Ohio State Regulations #3745-21-09) under emission limits for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC).
The Encyclon filter cones normally eject the swarf into a 25 gallon waste container. For many marinas, this large capacity container will hold all of the smaller debris generated during the haulout season. Along with the swarf each cone adds about 1-quart each minute of liquid into the trash container. The waste container is equipped with a baffled overflow that allows the water to return to the dirty tank or sump. At some point all of the water in the waste container will have been displaced by the swarf collected. Periodically, the waste container must be emptied and the contents disposed by normal trash collection. Depending on your trash makeup and the local requirements, a licensed hauler may have to remove and dispose of the residual wastewater and solids.
Since solids are usually less expensive to dispose of, you should consider dewatering strategies in your initial plan. Drum heater bands or other evaporation and mixing with sawdust have been used effectively to de-water collected swarf. With our cyclonic filtration there is no used filter media to dispose of along with the collected swarf .
Encyclon units are simple to service with low maintenance as most models have just one moving part-the cyclone pump. Not much can go wrong with Encyclon filtration unless one of the following problems occurs: (1) low input water pressure, (2) high output water pressure, or (3) clogged discharge orifice. It's not rocket science, but a cyclonic system must be designed properly to prevent problems. The design criteria include; a working pump, a constant supply of water usually requiring a tank, a discharge pipe for clean water with bypass capabilities and no restrictions, and a strainer basket to catch the larger stuff before it can clog the discharge orifice. The dirty discharged particulates are directed to a small collection container that has an overflow for excess water to be reprocessed.
I
heard that cyclonic filtration doesn't work. How do Encyclon high efficiency cyclonic cones differ from low efficiency
cyclones?
Since 1974 we have sold thousands
of cyclonic cones for demanding industrial applications. Our industrial customers include some of the world's largest
corporations who have the resources to regularly test fluid samples and reject filtration systems that do not perform
to advertised standards. When an aircraft engine builder makes a bad filter choice, a defective part that causes
an engine failure can result in disaster. A damaged pressure washer seems almost trivial by comparison.
Smaller cyclones are more efficient. Often when I mention cyclones to a new customer they tell me how great their
Dyson vacuum
cleaner works. They understand efficiency as the Dyson Root Cyclone™ uses as many as (14) very small cyclonic chambers
in their product. As a cyclone becomes more efficient, both the length and capacity are reduced. Our smaller 3-micron
#28 cone measures about half the length of our #65 cone with only 25% the capacity. We use a single #65 cone for
our standard marina waste water filter systems because our standard 5-micron filtration is already more efficient
than the 50-micron filtration obtained when using new filter paper, cartridges and bags media.
Our Competitors big low efficiency
(LE) cyclones cause problems. Unfortunately potential customers have also complained about
problems when using some of our competitor's cyclonic systems. I find that low efficiency (LE) cyclones are usually
the problem. LE cyclones are commonly used in process applications like separating corn kernels. These big LE cyclones
may also be great for filtering sand from a water main supply line, but they can only remove a small percentage
of the smaller contaminates that can destroy the pump seals found in a marina pressure washer. You can avoid these
inefficient filtration systems because the LE cyclonic cone is easy to recognize. Look for a cyclonic cone that
is typically longer than 40-inches. You can often find other types of additional media filtration that actually
filter out the small stuff in many of LE cyclonic systems. LE cyclonic chambers often use complicated dump valves
that require electrical controls for the discharge of effluent. Their low cyclonic pressures do not work well with
an open discharge that is required for the helpful air injection feature. LE cyclones do not need a ceramic discharge
nozzle because they develop a much lower centrifugal force and particle velocity that leaves many of the smaller
contaminates unfiltered.
Encyclon frequently get calls asking how to fix a competitor's broken cyclonic unit. These big cones can have big
rust problems. Their LE cyclonic cones are usually made from steel that is prone to internal corrosion and almost
impossible to repair. Often the company that supplied the LE cyclonic system is no longer in business. With a little
plumbing work and a few Encyclon #65 high-efficiency cones, we can usually fix our competitor's broken filter.
These satisfied "repair" customers usually purchase their next new system from Encyclon.
