Alar Corp

Dean Trevaskis pumps and hauls commercial greasetrap, residential septic, portable toilet and wine lees near the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California.

In 1999, with several disposal sites closing or raising their discharge fees, Trevaskis opened a private processing plant to dewater over 3.5 million gallons of sludge a year.  The plant turns a profit, and Trevaskis sees a lot of potential for growth and may one day move away from pumping and concentrate solely on the processing business.

Trevaskis was excited to share what he’s learned by hosting an open house this past October (2011) in conjunction with a wastewater sysmposium held by COWA and NAWT.  Sierra Septic showcased their 12-year-old ALAR system consisting of a Rotary Auger Strainer, Super Sack Unloading System and Auto-Vac AV690 Rotary Vacuum Drum Precoat Filter.

View entire story at: Disposal Done Right

Hank and Shane VanVeen of Wessuc located in Brantford, Ontario, Canada expanded their wastewater treatment and pumping services into a long-term municipal biosolids management.

When land-application of the sludge is unavailable, Wessuc turned to dewatering and composting practices.  The VanVeen’s tried to dewater the liquid sludge using centrifuge and belt press technologies. The equipment could not handle variances of thick and thin loads, and it wore out and choked on grit, sand, hairballs, and plastic.

Wessuc found greater success with a trailer-mounted ALAR Auto-Vac rotary vacuum drum filter.  “It gives us a great competitive advantage.  It uses less power, and we get very high effluent quality.  The water we return to the digest contains roughly 16 to 20 mg/l of total suspended solids”, says Hank VanVeen.

Wessuc,  a customer of ALAR‘s since June 2005, has an Auto-Vac Model 6120 at their facility.

Read more: A Solids Success

Trailer Mounted Auto-Vac Rotary Vacuum Drum Filter

Located in San Francisco, family-owned producer Bode Concrete has ties that go back to 1915.

Bode Concrete has stepped up recycling with a cement fine capture method that maximizes usage of reclaimed water in a minimal timeframe. Processed water from a morning delivery’s washout can be part of the batch for an afternoon load, thanks to the installation of an Alar Engineering Auto-Vac system.

Bode runs the largest capacity Auto-Vac Alar has delivered in concrete, with a 6 x 9 ft. drum. The installation can take up to 20,000 gallons of slurry in an eight-hour period down to the specific gravity range suited to  a wide variety of mix specs.

Auto-Vac 690

PPG Industries constantly seeks to improve pollution and waste prevention programs throughout its global manufacturing facilities.  In 2009, PPG’s Reno Plant took steps to enhance its existing wash water and wastewater management program by implementing an in-house chemical treatment and dewatering system. The Reno plant produces latex paint under the familiar brand names of Olympic and Pittsburgh paints.

Challenge: PPG Industries in Reno, NV., sought a more efficient way to deal with its wash water and wastewater.

Solution: PPG did its due diligence in conducting several performance tests on a complete chemical batch and filter system from Alar Engineering Corporation.

Conclusion: PPG ultimately purchased an ALAR Auto-Vac filter to handle their 12,000 gallons of wastewater per day.  They were able to reduce cross-state sludge handling and disposal costs.

Auto-Vac 660 Treatment System

Read the full article at: www.alarcorp.com (Case Studies)

Water pollution control is one of this country’s top priorities. The E.P.A. fueled by growing public pressure, is tightening the regulations on what may and may not be discharged into our sewers or disposed of in landfills.  Liquid waste disposal is virtually non-existent and is completely banned in 98% of the U.S. today.  The government has placed the responsibility of those companies using water in their processes to meet these strict E.P.A. guidelines. These efforts preserve our rivers and streams and ensure safe drinking water far into the future.

To comply with these regulations industries are faced with exorbitant hauling costs, expensive off-site treatment, increased municipal user fees and the burden of cleaning up wastewater lagoons.  Non-compliance results in heavy fines and may even lead to complete plant shut down.

The most sensible and cost-effective solution is to clean up wash water at the source.  ALAR Engineering Corporation has been designing and manufacturing wastewater treatment equipment since 1970.  Utilizing the latest in technology and advanced research methods,  ALAR provides industries of all types with state-of-the-art, time proven equipment.

In January 2011, North Dakota based Paragon Water Solutions contacted ALAR with a need to solve a closed loop drilling mud problem.

Paragon tested conventional methods such as Reserve Pits, Centrifuges, Hydrocyclones, Filter Presses, and Settling Tanks. In each scenario, they still hauled out dirty water, and trucked in clean water.

After exhausting every avenue, Paragon searched for a “magic bullet” to filter a combination of wastewaters, produce dry solids and recycle clean water without the cost and headaches. They found the ALAR Auto-Vac^® filter.

The ALAR Auto-Vac^® works with Surface Mud, Lateral Brine Water, Fresh Water, and Frac Tank Sludge. This technology does not blind or cause bottlenecks, and is forgiving of wastewater variances and thick oily sludge.

The clean water increased the drilling rate of penetration and reduced mud pump and downhole tool wear & maintenance. The dry solids decreased wet ton hauling and water truck congestion. Paragon also noticed that the Auto-Vac^® eliminated reserve pits. Most of all, the dollar savings were substantial. Earlier methods cost up to $66 a barrel; Paragon now charges $10 per barrel.

 Of the many dewatering system choices, two machines are often mistaken as the same technology due to their physical similarities. These systems would be the centrifuge and the rotary vacuum drum filter.

Both systems have skid mounted cylindrical drum filters that are used to separate liquids and solids; and that’s about all they have in common.

A centrifuge offers “nominal” filtration whereas the Auto-Vac® provides “absolute” filtration. In relation to particle filtration size, the centrifuge typically filters down to 5 micron; Auto-Vac® filters down to 0.5 micron.

When dewatering non-settleable solids, a centrifuge needs polymer to capture smaller than 5 micron particles, where the Auto-Vac requires very little to no polymer (just a pin-floc). The volatile spin on centrifuges requires heavy doses of polymer to maintain a molecular bond. The “spin cycle” often shreds polymer bonding.

A centrifuge cannot function without polymer nor can it operate efficiently with a polymer overdose. The Auto-Vac® will filter slower and less efficient, but will still filter. Variances in the waste stream, such as heavy slugs of solids could also debilitate a centrifuge.

The purpose of dewatering is to reduce water weight in order to landfill or transport the filtered solids economically. Centrifuge generates from 11% – 15% dry solid content by weight; Auto-Vac up to 45% dry solid content by weight.

Upfront capital costs will fluctuate with the materials of construction; both machines typically fall within the same dollar amount. Both dewatering systems have ongoing consumable costs, but maintenance should be factored in as well.

There are only five moving parts on an Auto-Vac®, all of which require light duty maintenance consisting of scheduled cleaning and lubrication. Auto-Vac® parts are available commercially. A centrifuge requires the rotor assembly to be rebuilt at least once a year. The cost to rebuild the rotor assembly is 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of a brand new centrifuge (annually – sometimes biannually). Centrifuge systems have an intricate bearing and shaft assembly with a very tight tolerance that requires constant adjustment and realignment (replacement and maintenance costs can be very high).

The Aut0-Vac Rotary Vacuum Drum Filter

I read about all the flooding and damage done by water.  Something we cannot live without yet when tragedy happens, we wish it would be gone.

Mother Nature does it again…randomly leaving a scar in her path.  Homes, businesses, schools, churches, hospitals left in ruin or worse completely destroyed.

We as compassionate people, reach out to each other to lend a helping hand.  Who knows when it will happen to our town…no one is safe from Mother Nature.

Water that I usually talk about is the wastewater type of water…water that is from a manufacturing process, water that cannot go down the sewer in its raw form, water that can be reused in the process if treated properly or put down the sewer safely.

Water…I know there is a percentage of the earth that is covered with it, just look at the globe, a lot of water out there.  Can you imagine looking at the world and not see all that blue??  I can’t and don’t even want to think about that possibility.

Water…a simple commodity we all expect will be here for years and years to come…as long as we are smart about its uses and be environmentally aware of what we do to it.  Reach out and help each other with the water issues around us.  We don’t want Mother Nature to see what we are doing.  Never mess with Mom, she knows how to handle those who do not respect and appreciate what they have.

Wastewater is a problem most companies face.  After the manufacturing process, wastewater or sludge remain an environmental concern.

Some companies simply put it down the sewer or into a lagoon, others haul it away to landfills.   Yet others search out a solution to their problem.

ALAR’s water pollution systems and equipment has been the answer to many companies worldwide.

Since 1970, the ALAR Auto-Vac filter dewaters process and wastewater sludge generated from a wide variety of industries.  Sludge from air floaters, wet scrubbers, and clarifiers can also be dewatered with ease, sharply reducing hauling costs.

Raw, Filtrate & Dry Solids (Before & After)

Do I have your interest??  Do you want more information??

• Our filtration test is free of charge
• We will filter your sample in our lab
• We will return to you samples of your clear filtrate and dry solids
• We will size a filter for you

For more information, go to www.alarcorp.com

Does your wastewater contain any of the following:

• Total Suspended Solids (TSS)

• Fat, Oil & Grease (FOG)

• Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)

• Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)

• Restaurant Greasetrap

• SBR (Bio Bug) Digester Sludge

• DAF Sludge

What are you doing to treat it??

Read the Alpenrose Dairy Case Study

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