Which Design is the Best?

As demand for cleaner and healthier water increases and as awareness grows in the consumer and commercial markets about the value of water aeration.

Competition is emerging to provide various solutions for this market. One area that seems a little confusing is the noise in this emerging aeration industry surrounding the various air compressors that pump the air from the windmills or electric aerators into the water.

We asked Koenders Windmills – celebrating 20 years in this business and the original manufacturers and innovators of windmill aeration systems why their compressor is the best!( the air compressor is one of the main components in an aeration system – the pump the air from the pump and in to the airline out into the pond).

Koenders has had 20 years experience in building and innovating these products and has over 50,000 customers using them along with a warranty claim ratio that is incredible to say the least – less than .05 % – so we thought it be best that we ask them.

Their Engineers were kind enough to provide us with the following response;

1) It has been proven with engineering and physics that the piston size to blade surface ratio must be in perfect balance such that an aeration system will achieve excellence in performance and reliability in low to medium winds speeds.

2) Koenders has designed their piston size to blade ratio to produce excellent air volumes at high wind speeds as well as providing longer hours of production in lower winds without stalling.

3)Volumes of aeration is determined by the depths that the air diffusers (air diffusers take compressed air and convert it into thousands of tiny oxygen
bubbles that dissolve directly into the water) are placed in the water – this has an impact on back pressure (one pound per square inch of pressure for every 2 Ft of water depth).

4) Larger pistons more air is the theory and in theory this sounds great. But if you design a larger piston that will produce larger amounts of air then you also require more power to drive the larger piston ( for windmills this would mean that you would need higher winds and for electric aerators it would mean that you require more power).

If the larger power requirements or wind speeds are not met then the actual run time of the windmill that aerates the ponds will be dramatically reduced – lowering the amount of aeration running time and actually losing air production time instead of increasing it.

5) Our engineers at Koenders have always taken the approach that windmill aeration is like riding a bike. There are gears on a bike that allow you to change gears when you are going up hills, down hills and riding along flat ground. With the windmills we do not have the option of gears so we designed the windmill to operate in all conditions low, high and medium winds – just like you would a bike if you could choose only one gear to perform all functions in all conditions.

6) Reliability – another design consideration is force – the larger the piston/diaphragm diameter the more force is placed on the connecting rods, bearing sets and other related components. We have designed our pistons to operate in all wind conditions while exerting the least amount of force on the other windmill components. Our track record for this design is proven.

© 2008, Pond Owner Magazine. www.pondowner.com

Aeration on the Effects on Microbes in a Lagoon

By Renowned Researcher Roy Cullimore Ph. D., R.M.

Dr. Roy Cullimore is world renowned for his research in water and has been the director of the water research institute at the University of Regina since 1975.

Dr. Cullimore Writes:

Many lagoons are used to store and treat sanitary wastes from small communities. These lagoons are stagnant receiving no treatment for the waste waters within the lagoon since there is no need to be discharged. This is because evaporation and seepage at least equals in volume the septic wastes being feed into the lagoon. Such lagoons are relatively stagnant with natural treatment being restricted by the
conditions in the lagoon. Any break down of the organics in such stagnant septic systems is likely to be by fermentation with the products being hydrogen sulfide, volatiles, and natural gases. Under these smelly conditions are likely to occur from time to time as these chemicals move up though the water often as bubbles and foam.

Natural winds can affect these natural activities by folding the surface waters into waves which then causes turbulence with oxygen from the air getting down into the upper layers of the water. Here the oxygen is rapidly used by the natural microbes to break down these organic septic wastes which are a good thing. The more the wind actions then the more these septic wastes are degraded and the lagoon is doing its job.

There are other ways to get oxygen into the lagoon to speed up natural treatment and these almost all involve the bubbling of air into the lagoon waters to increase the rates at which the microbes can degrade the septic wastes. Commonly oxygen is added to the lagoon water as compressed air that may be made electrically or mechanically. This air now bubbles up through the water with the nitrogen escaping but the oxygen becoming at least in part dissolved into the water. Here the dissolved oxygen becomes the “fodder” for the microbes that are now able to break down the septic wastes much more efficiently.

Septic waste lagoons can be stinky places at some times in the year and colourful at other times when bacteria generate red colors in the absence of oxygen. Aerating the septic lagoons whether with electrical compressors or windmills means that, regardless of the winds, oxygen is getting into the water and the microbes are breaking down the organics. This means that the lagoon can carry a greater load
of septic waste since the microbes are being encouraged to work harder by the presence of oxygen and therefore purify the wastes. Aeration from even a single windmill can change the ecology of a lagoon from a stagnant pool of smelly water that changes in colors through reds and blacks during the year; to a clarifying pool of water that goes green with algal growth during the summer and remains stink-free the year round. Even in the winter aeration keeps the circulation of water going allowing oxygen to get in and microbes happy harvesting the septic wastes even when it is very cold. In the Antarctic Oceans there are many microbes that love to grow just under the ice at near freezing temperatures. We have the same thing in Saskatchewan!

Roy Cullimore Ph. D., R.M.

Roy Cullimore is an applied ecologist trained at the University of Nottingham, UK. Since 1975 he has been Director of Regina Water Research Institute at the University of Regina. He along with co inventor George Alford, have five patents including the biological activity reaction test (BART TM) and the blended chemical heat treatment (BCHT TM). Roy has published over one hundred refereed papers, two hundred and seventy five technical reports and has received over $3.5 million in research funding. At present, he is President of Droycon Bioconcepts Inc. of Regina, a biotechnology company involved in research, development and manufacture. He authored Practical Manual of Groundwater Microbiology which was published by Lewis Publishers in 1993. Currently Roy is editor of a number of books on sustainable wells. He is now involved in research on the rusticle growths on RMS Titanic and dove to the ship in 1996 and 1998 as part of the Discovery Channel expeditions. Also, Roy is currently involved in the AWWARF water well rehabilitation project being undertaken by Leggette, Brashears and Graham, Connecticut.

© 2008, Pond Owner Magazine. www.pondowner.com

Save Money on Power Use Windmill Aeration

Fountains look great and are very pretty but as an means to aerate ponds they
are not the most effective way to perform this task.

Fountains spray water up in the air and the splashes in the pond caused by the
water landing on the pond surface traps oxygen bubbles in the pond. This is
called surface aeration and only provides oxygen to the top 1.5 ft of a pond.

Other disadvantages of surface aeration through fountains are the energy costs
of operating them and associated reliability and maintenance due to the many
working components that are needed to operate the fountain. Fountains push
water through hose line up into the air so energy required to do this is very
high.

Bottom up aeration systems compress air into air line and air diffusers are
placed in the bottom of the ponds. Oxygen is dissolved into the bottom of the
pond where oxygen levels are at their lowest. The oxygen bubbles rise through
the pond and help burn off the excess organic debris that causes pond
stagnation, algae and weeds.

Recently, windmills for aeration have really caught on – here is a picture of
a fish farm in Jamaica that bought 6 Superior Windmill aerations systems to
aerate their fish ponds. Its critical to have adequate oxygen levels in a
fish pond to ensure fish remain healthy and do not die. This customer used
these windmills to aerate all the ponds and is saving him close to 2 thousand
dollars per/month in energy costs. He will have paid for these windmills in
less than six months and will have no operating costs on these units for years
to come.

With proven products like Superior Windmill there is no maintenance for 5-7
years and they are built to last decades. Making this an easy investment to
justify. With the rising costs of POWER and people looking for alternative
solutions to Electric POWER – Windmill Aeration makes good financial sense and its good for the environment.

© 2008, Pond Owner Magazine. www.pondowner.com