Canadian Finishing & Coatings Manufacturing Magazine Jan/Feb 2023 - 56

PLATING AND ANODIZING: WASTEWATER TECHNOLOGY
supplied chilled water, driving up the overall cost per unit volume
of recovered distillate.
Whether it's fine tuning or increasing its research and
development (R&D) efforts to develop solutions based on their
customers' needs, the Kontek team is always on the lookout for
new solutions to add to their technology lineup.
In fact, it has recently become a sales partner with H20 [see
sidebar], a German-based company that delivered a technical
presentation at the Aluminum Anodizing Council's annual
conference, last fall in Kansas City, Mo.
" Our main interest in H20's technology is that it can produce
a distillate that can be reused, " says David Chan, vice-president
of Kontek. " That vapour could be condensed and collected as
a condensate or distillate. And that's what H20's VACUDEST
does. The H2O equipment appears to be very well engineered,
with ruggedness and durability in mind, is operable with very
minimal labour requirements, and manufactured to be easily
serviceable.
These are the hallmarks of a Kontek designed
system, so we wanted to ensure we were aligning with a similar
mentality supplier. Their abundance of case studies and
empirical operational data provides confidence in including the
VACUDEST into our wastewater recovery systems. "
The H2O system uses the relatively cooler residual liquid
waste product that is fed into the VACUDEST to cool down the
water vapour, instead of an external chilled water supply. This
practice also pre-heats the residual liquid waste product so that
an efficient evaporation/condensing cycle can be maintained.
Kontek's attraction to the H2O unit is that it also has add on
modules such as Clearcat for oil-free distillate and Purecat for
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) compliance. " In a case where
you're dealing with wastewater with emulsified oils, they claim to
have the ability to separate out the oils from the distillate, which
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" Our main interest in H20's technology
is that it can produce a distillate that
can be reused. That vapour could be
condensed and collected as a condensate
or distillate. And that's what H20's
VACUDEST does. "
- David Chan, vice-president, Kontek
is pretty attractive, " says Chan. " And any time you're dealing
with oils or greases, there is likely a COD or a Biological Oxygen
Demand (BOD) issue and their Purecat module reduces that. "
Since connecting with H20, Kontek has received requests for
quotes (RFQs) on the H2O equipment, and has also integrated
H2O VACUDEST units into many wastewater recovery systems'
design. We are also assisting them with projects in the US and
Canada as well, from the supply on ancillary components, to
installation and commissioning of their systems..
There are also new elements that are starting to appear on
discharge permits-such as boron, selenium and molybdenum-
due to toxicity levels that can affect marine and human life.
" We are working with a US company that has a plating process
that contains nickel, molybdenum and cobalt. Ultimately, they're
doing nickel plating but through a very unconventional nickel
bath. It's not your typical nickel sulphate, nickel chloride or
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Canadian Finishing & Coatings Manufacturing Magazine Jan/Feb 2023

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