Greenhouse Water Recycling Systems

Efficient water use and irrigation recycling is a crucial issue for growers. Why? Well, for one the Government states that wastewater from greenhouses is classified as sewage stated in their water rules for greenhouse operators. They go on to say… Untreated, these sources of sewage can harm the environment. To help control and minimize impacts, discharges from greenhouses require approval from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. They classify greenhouse sewage in the following way:

Greenhouses typically generate sewage from:

• water with added nutrients
• water that has been used for irrigation and washing of crops
• recycled water
• water carried through floor drains inside the greenhouse operation, including water that mixes with storm water

So basically if you irrigate with fertilizers (its OK, we all do) you are classified as creating greenhouse sewage. So what is the solution to create a better environment, Stay on the right side of the law with the ministry of environment and lets not forget and still more importantly ensure our crop is getting fed both nutrients and fresh clean water that will increase plant production and yield a healthy crop year after year?

We Intend to Give you that Solution, stay with us….

Greenhouse Management Magazine, recently created and article “10 tips for recycling irrigation water” and it covers some really great points around, greenhouse water purification and I would encourage you to check it out when you get a chance.

They mention to talk with as many fellow growers as possible to see what is working for specific crops and what has not worked in certain instances. After helping growers for over 35 years, we have seen that some UV sterilization units for irrigation water quality, are not industrial grade. Simply put they can not keep up with some commercial greenhouses’ water flow rate. In the article they also mention chlorine. Saying, “A vacuum system for chlorine treatment is reliable, but an automated system with regulators and sensors based on oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) is safer.” We couldn’t agree more, the team at climate control systems have created the perfect solution for commercial greenhouse water purification combining the best in greenhouse automation and state of the art ORP sensors to measure oxygen in the irrigation line.

Why Did we Decided to Create an Ozone Water Recycling System ?

When the rest of the greenhouse purification industry was screaming UV, we decided to innovate instead and create a system around Ozone Purification. Why? Well, again from the Greenhouse management article, One crop loss could cost 10x more than the amount to install and operate a proper disinfection system. Water disinfection ensures that plant pathogens are not being recycled along with the irrigation water. An integrated approach with physical, chemical, and biological treatments is most effective. After seeing grower after grower not being happy with a standard UV setup that couldn’t keep up with irrigation flow, we decided to create an commercial grade system that can treat multiple water tanks and reservoirs that kills 99.9% bacteria in the water.

Introducing the Ozone Pro Water Purification System

The CCS-SW80 Plasma Ozone Technology is ideal for sterilizing irrigation waste water for greenhouse hydroponic crops. Ozone technology is very effective for sterilizing re-claimed irrigation waste water and is ideal for use in greenhouse irrigation water. The Ozone water treatment system are available for water flow rates from 10 US GPM to 1000 US GPM. Each system is custom designed to suit your specific water flow rate and as you can see are far superior to UV bulb systems.

The onsite site Oxygen Generators produce up to 94% pure oxygen to allow maximum ozone production to ensure the effectiveness for water sterilization, killing all pathogens instantly. Often times these systems are used in hospitals to ensure sterilization.

The process of dissolved ozone in the water kills all the bacteria, viruses and pathogens resulting in clean sterilized water for the next recycled run to irrigate the crop with all nutrients and the fresh clean treated water.

The residual ozone in the water not only sterilizes but also provides dissolved oxygen in the irrigation water which is very beneficial for plant growth. Now lets talk about some benefits of using an ozone based system for greenhouse water treatment and purification.

 

Benefits of Using a Ozone Water Recycling System

Less disease

Most crop diseases infect plants by the way of bacteria in the water, the same way humans get colds. Ozone destroys all microorganisms in the line by direct contact with the ozone in the water. The ozonized irrigation protects as it destroys bacteria, virus and parasites that are difficult to fight by other procedures like UV. Other systems may imply the use of chemical agents (like chlorine) sometimes injurious for the human consumption and for the environment. Ozone is a product from Nature itself and does not contaminate. The plants and the harvested produce stay safe for consumption and is a better system overall to conserve the environment.

More Saving Benefits

You can expect savings in the way of fertilizer costs, on your water bill and lowering the use of other additives to your irrigation system. Most growers report a 30% savings on fertilizer costs and a 40% savings on water bills. There was also an article published on Greenhouse Canada, where they say the future for greenhouse irrigation is “water efficiency“.

 

Even the recycling of irrigation water takes on a totally different dimension when a farmer practices re-circulation to save on the cost of getting water, instead of merely trying to comply with discharge regulations. In some very arid climates, the cost of irrigation water is beginning to exceed the cost of fuel, and I would speculate that water efficiency is going to be one of the keywords in the future of crop production

 

You can use this Excel template to calculate how much you can save by utilizing our Ozone Pro Water Recycling System:

 

More Growth

The effect of using an ozone based system will have an added benefit of getting much greater oxygen contribution to the root zone of the plants. After ozone oxidizes or disinfects, it decomposes into oxygen. Not only will you be irrigating with fresh clean water, completely free of viruses, bacteria, fungi, mold and any other microorganism but you will be feeding your plants an oxygen boost. The absence of germs allows the water to be in the best condition possible to obtain faster growth in the greenhouse. The plant will grow with more health and vitality as the increase of oxygen really helps to produce the best plant resilience possible.

 

More Plant Volume

Not only will it improve the growth aspect of the main plant (leaves, stems, roots…), but also its fruits and the rate of growth. The ozone / oxygen will speed up the life cycle of maturation in smaller space of time and, in general, the fruit will present itself with a larger size (compact, strong and with more volume).

 

More production

All we have said previously will result in the collection of greater crop yield of healthier product with the same effort. The yield of the production will increase as you keep the crop safe from disease and increase its oxygen intake.

 

Better Flavor

Another very remarkable consequence is the one that results in the quality of the flavor by effect of the ozonized irrigation and proper amounts of nutrients, in essence a greater amount of sugars is produced in the fruit.

 

Conclusions on Using a Ozone Water Recycling System

 

Any agricultural or commercial operation can immediately see the benefits of installing a new ozone water recycling system of with all the results listed below:

• More Crop Yields – Greater weight and volume.
• Fruits High in Glucose (more sugars)
• Product free of external defects. More resilient to diseases
• More Vigorous and healthy plants. Free of contagions problems.
• Better Root Zone Production with Oxygen
• Greater production in smaller space of time. Water saving.
• Saving in fertilizers, insecticides, etc.)

The mixture of Ozone and Oxygen is based on the amount of cubic meters and the flow/hour that needs to be used for the irrigation, if you would like a custom quote for your specific greenhouse needs get into touch with one of our greenhouse engineers here.