We recently invested in a new filtration system for the boatyard manufactured by Encyclon Inc, a leading cyclonic filtration system manufacturer. This new system will give us another level of water filtration on the hundreds of boats that are hauled and pressure-washed in our boatyard every year.
The new filtration system is an add-on to the existing sedimentation tanks that have been in place for many years at Nanny Cay. Water and the suspended matter from the washdown process drain into these two tanks where the particles settle and a sludge forms at the bottom of the tank – this is then removed and disposed of at the incinerator. The Encyclon brings this filtration process a step further by removing any particles that did not settle as they pass through a cyclonic chamber.
How Encyclon Works
Step 1 – Dirty water enters the Inlet Orifice. The liquid flows in a downward spiral in the cyclonic chamber.
Step 2 – The primary whirl spins the liquid at a centrifugal force of up to 7500 times that of gravity. Solid particles are consequently spun out of the liquid, stick to the wall and slide down to the discharge orifice.
Step 3 – A throttling effect in the lower cyclonic chamber reverses the descent of the liquid but not the rotation. This forms the secondary wheel – a spiraling flow of cleaned liquid that passes up through the primary whirl to the whirl searcher.
The diameter of the whirl searcher is smaller than the secondary whirl, and the whirl searcher accepts only the centre of the upward whirl flow.
Step 4 – The outside portion of the secondary whirl contains impurities that were missed by the primary whirl. It is therefore diverted back to the primary wheel for further cleaning. This double cleansing action is significant to the efficiency of the Encyclon Cyclonic Filtration Systems.
Step 5 – Liquid that passes through the whirl searcher is then piped out.
An Ongoing Process
Installing the Encyclon filtration system is part of the ongoing process of improving the infrastructure, and reducing our environmental impact, here at Nanny Cay. We initially focused on completing larger projects vital to the development of Nanny Cay as a world-class marina – adding site-wide back up power, water making, and sewage treatment; and dock improvements and expansion – and are now working on smaller projects which will continue to make incremental but important improvements.
Last year saw the completion of two of these. At the start of 2013, we dredged the flushing channel at the western end of the marina. This 12-day project resulted in the removal of 3,000 cubic yards of slurry as well as debris such as nets, rebar and bottles. This substantially increased the flow of the flushing channel which “flushes” the marina with fresh water.
Later in the year. we also installed Tortola’s first marine waste pump-out facility on the K dock near the entrance to the marina. The US-built SaniSailor marine pump-out system removes waste at 20-35 gallons per minute. This feeds into our existing waste treatment plant, which currently processes approximately 19,000 gallons of wastewater per day.