The past growing season has once again shown the importance for the reuse of water. This summer was the hottest summer in at least three centuries. Besides the high temperatures, on average 105 mm of rain fell in the months June, July, and August, while 220 mm rain is normal in this period. This summer is in the top 5 of driest summers since the beginning of the twentieth century.
This has posed quite some (filter) challenges at the horticulture companies, according to Moor Filtertechniek. Micha van Nieuwkerk: "In the growing season, accumulation of sodium occurred because of longer re-circulation due to water scarcity. Depending on the sensitivity to salt, sodium could cause damage to the growth to a lesser or higher degree. Other problems were debris formation in the drip irrigation system, decreasing the quality of the water. Due to water scarcity, all the water was kept at the company, which caused (organic) pollution of the irrigation system."
At Moor Filtertechniek they saw that using band filters, which were purchased to meet the drainage degree by having zero emission, were very useful. "Band filters have been applied in various situations, such as filtering of ditch water to remove organic pollution, between 5 and 80 micron, from the water. Or when filtering algae and debris formation from the drip irrigation systems to keep the oxygen levels in the irrigation water high enough. And to prevent pollution of the silos by filtering return water of various filters". The band filters have proven their value in this period. "That also applies for systems which remove sodium and also reclaim water. These have also been very useful in this hot and dry summer."
At the end of the growing season, the demand is increasing for systems for sodium removal, such as Poseidon, for reversed osmosis systems to create good irrigation water and band filtering systems for optimizing water streams and to possibly realize zero emission. Micha concludes: "Particularly the demand for sodium removal systems has soared, given the number of requests at the end of this year".
For more information:
Moor Filtertechniek
www.vanderendegroep.nl
Micha van Nieuwkerk
+31(0)6 1499 7717
mn@moor.nl