Aug. 15, 2014, Millgrove, Ont. — Nestled on 12 acres of land between
Hamilton and Guelph, Singh Greenhouses is one of Ontario’s leading
hydroponic English cucumber operations. There was only one issue holding
back this budding operation: its hard groundwater source.
Aug. 15, 2014, Millgrove, Ont. — Nestled on 12 acres of land between Hamilton and Guelph, Singh Greenhouses is one of Ontario’s leading hydroponic English cucumber operations. There was only one issue holding back this budding operation: its hard groundwater source.
“Greenhouses need nutrient-rich water. As a result, a hard water source poses a lot of challenges in hydroponics,” said Dr. Ghulam Mustafa, manager and grower, Singh Greenhouses.
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| Company owner Paramjit Singh, at right, and his son Hardeep. |
Determined to reduce energy costs, conserve water, satisfy stringent discharge conditions and recycle nutrient-rich hydroponic feed water, Singh sought out the expertise of Kontek, a leading Canadian process water management company.
Singh’s existing reverse osmosis system generated only 65 per cent recyclable permeate water. The other 35 per cent was rejected as brine wastewater.
After installing a Kontek RoKon reverse osmosis system in September 2013, the greenhouse was able to boost its recovery by 60 per cent and now recycles 95 per cent of its process water.
The new system has minimized the risk of exposure to harsh hard raw water and bacteria, said Dr. Mustafa. “At the same time, we reduced pumping costs by 20 per cent, and boosted our recovery by 60 per cent.”
To stabilize the recovery rate, the new system automatically doses the feed water with acid and anti-scalant on a pulse proportional basis. This subtle feature has served to maximize the recovery capacity of Singh’s water operations.
“We designed this system to fit Singh’s environment, application and groundwater characteristics perfectly,” said Glen Russell, president and chief executive officer, Kontek Ecology Systems Inc.
“We always do a complete analysis before designing a concept, and use a wide variety of technologies to make sure that it works for companies.”
Founded in 1980, Kontek Ecology Systems Inc. is a Canadian process water
management company that employs 40 people.
Headquartered in Burlington,
Ontario, Kontek’s systems are used in a wide variety of industries
across the world. Kontek has one 100 per cent subsidiary, Kontek PTY,
located in Oxenford, Australia.
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