Part 3: Water: Zero Discharge, Zero Waste
Maintenance is an important component of any reclaimer and BIBKO's no exception, but what BIBKO does that separates them from others is they do things like put a winch and a davit here that allows us to raise each pump and inspect things like the impeller and all the connections and make sure that everything is operating correctly. We recommend you do this once a week to maintain the operational efficiency of your BIBKO. When we're measuring the water level we use this sonar, which is made by Endress Hauser and it helps us determine what level the water is in both pits. The second meter is a density meter or turbidity meter, which is made by Endress Hauser as well. This meter is extended below the water line and relays the exact, specific gravity of the water back up to the automation in the batch control room, where they can then use that information to then blend the grey water with fresh water to make fresh concrete. Depending on the season you may need to chill or heat your water. BIBKO's solution is to use a false bottom. They use steel plates in the floor, they're about four inches thick and they run water, chilled water or heated water through them in order to maintain the temperature in the pits. This is part of the plumbing for that chilled or heated water. This manifold runs three pumps: one provides fresh water to the BIBKO, the middle one is just for wash water around the plant and third one provides heated or chilled water for the false bottoms to maintain temperature in the pits. An 11 foot shaft and a 54 inch diameter agitator are at the bottom of the pit. They're attached to the motor and gear box. Well, BIBKO knew there would be a lot of stress and torque on that gear box, so they put urethane bushings at all attach points on the gear box to help eliminate the stress. If you look here you can actually see the movement of the gear box caused by the agitator blades, this significantly increases bearing life. I've raised this inspection hatch so you can look down in here and see the agitators in action. They're agitating the water, keeping the solids suspended. It's 54 inch diameter blade on each one of these agitators and they turn at about 60 revolutions per minute. The batch plant gets its grey water from this four inch hose, which delivers the grey water along a 400 foot run to a holding tank in the batch plant. This is where it all comes together. We're in the batch room right now and behind me are each one of the three read outs that correspond to the densiometers down in the pit that will show us the specific gravity of each one of the pits. The third pit itself interfaces with the computers automation in the batch room and it allows us to blend grey water with potable water and, of course, it knows the specific gravity and can actually pull back or hold out on sand or fines and increase the water. And when you call for a gallon of water you're only getting a certain percentage of that gallon because there are fines mixed in with that water and they displace the water. So the automation does its job by adding additional water and holding back on fines. One of the final phases of this project was to enclose the machine with a building. The owner wanted to maintain a specific temperature, so we chose Star Building Systems who erected this building in about two weeks. It went up with no fuss, no muss. I'm standing on a pad, a concrete pad that's actually heated with radiant heat to keep the drivers from slipping and falling on ice in the winter. Creteheads I hope you had as much fun learning about the BIBKO as I had telling you about it. This producer was a lot of fun to work with. We're able to get a great project done here. Do in part to the producer's passion and motivation to get this job done the right way. We left this producer knowing just as much about BIBKO as we do, which of course will translate to low maintenance and good operational efficiencies.
Creteheads, there's a great case study at maconcrete.com and go to concretereclaiming.com where there's a boat load of resources and information. Make sure you check that out too and you know we love you at Concreteanswers.tv. See ya!
Maintenance is an important component of any reclaimer and BIBKO's no exception, but what BIBKO does that separates them from others is they do things like put a winch and a davit here that allows us to raise each pump and inspect things like the impeller and all the connections and make sure that everything is operating correctly. We recommend you do this once a week to maintain the operational efficiency of your BIBKO. When we're measuring the water level we use this sonar, which is made by Endress Hauser and it helps us determine what level the water is in both pits. The second meter is a density meter or turbidity meter, which is made by Endress Hauser as well. This meter is extended below the water line and relays the exact, specific gravity of the water back up to the automation in the batch control room, where they can then use that information to then blend the grey water with fresh water to make fresh concrete. Depending on the season you may need to chill or heat your water. BIBKO's solution is to use a false bottom. They use steel plates in the floor, they're about four inches thick and they run water, chilled water or heated water through them in order to maintain the temperature in the pits. This is part of the plumbing for that chilled or heated water. This manifold runs three pumps: one provides fresh water to the BIBKO, the middle one is just for wash water around the plant and third one provides heated or chilled water for the false bottoms to maintain temperature in the pits. An 11 foot shaft and a 54 inch diameter agitator are at the bottom of the pit. They're attached to the motor and gear box. Well, BIBKO knew there would be a lot of stress and torque on that gear box, so they put urethane bushings at all attach points on the gear box to help eliminate the stress. If you look here you can actually see the movement of the gear box caused by the agitator blades, this significantly increases bearing life. I've raised this inspection hatch so you can look down in here and see the agitators in action. They're agitating the water, keeping the solids suspended. It's 54 inch diameter blade on each one of these agitators and they turn at about 60 revolutions per minute. The batch plant gets its grey water from this four inch hose, which delivers the grey water along a 400 foot run to a holding tank in the batch plant. This is where it all comes together. We're in the batch room right now and behind me are each one of the three read outs that correspond to the densiometers down in the pit that will show us the specific gravity of each one of the pits. The third pit itself interfaces with the computers automation in the batch room and it allows us to blend grey water with potable water and, of course, it knows the specific gravity and can actually pull back or hold out on sand or fines and increase the water. And when you call for a gallon of water you're only getting a certain percentage of that gallon because there are fines mixed in with that water and they displace the water. So the automation does its job by adding additional water and holding back on fines. One of the final phases of this project was to enclose the machine with a building. The owner wanted to maintain a specific temperature, so we chose Star Building Systems who erected this building in about two weeks. It went up with no fuss, no muss. I'm standing on a pad, a concrete pad that's actually heated with radiant heat to keep the drivers from slipping and falling on ice in the winter. Creteheads I hope you had as much fun learning about the BIBKO as I had telling you about it. This producer was a lot of fun to work with. We're able to get a great project done here. Do in part to the producer's passion and motivation to get this job done the right way. We left this producer knowing just as much about BIBKO as we do, which of course will translate to low maintenance and good operational efficiencies.
Creteheads, there's a great case study at maconcrete.com and go to concretereclaiming.com where there's a boat load of resources and information. Make sure you check that out too and you know we love you at Concreteanswers.tv. See ya!