Case Studies: Agriculture

Filtersafe Agriculture Installations

Water is the lifeblood of food production. This is why farmers around the globe look to Filtersafe’s filtration solutions to protect their farms’ water infrastructure.

Our reliable and efficient filtration technology plays a pivotal role in filtering water for reuse, safeguarding irrigation systems, preventing clogging, and minimizing maintenance downtime.

To witness the impact our filters have on allowing farmers to have consistent, reliable filters, we invite you to explore a diverse range of case studies showcasing installations across various agricultural applications. From large-scale farms to precision horticulture, these case studies offer valuable insights into the benefits our filtration solutions bring to the industry. Discover how our filters have revolutionized irrigation systems, protected sensitive crops, and boosted operational efficiency for farmers around the globe.

Contact Our Agriculture Water Experts for More Information

Global

Mr. Gabriel Biala

gabriel@filtersafe.net

Oceania

Mr. David Thompson

davidt@filtersafe.net

Filtersafe’s NozzleX: An Innovation that will Save Your Filter Screen

Filtersafe's nozzleX, the only nozzle your filter will ever need

At Filtersafe, we understand that water filtration is essential to helping many industries run smoothly. However, we also understand that today’s filtration technologies can always be improved — which is why we strive to be a leader in the world of water filtration. Our engineers have decades of experience in the industry, and they’re dedicated to creating the top technologies for automatic filtration.

nozzlex nozzle head in filter

One such technology is the NozzleX suction scanner – an innovative tool that enables the cleaning of organic and inorganic material from your filter’s screen, without wearing down the nozzle or wearing out the screen. With a typical automatic screen filter, the nozzles sit on a bar called a raiser. The raiser moves the nozzle heads back and forth along the length of the screen, while also rotating the nozzles in a corkscrew motion. The nozzles scan the surface, and by using negative pressure, dislodge debris one square inch at a time. While this does help the screen filter water effectively in the short term, the force from the nozzle can damage the screen and shorten its lifespan.

NozzleX, by contrast, uses low head pressure (as low as 23psi) to clear off all the buildup on the screen without damaging it. First, the raisers move the nozzles in such a way that 100% of the screen is scanned and cleaned. Next, in contrast to other filters, NozzleX nozzles safely come into contact with the screen, utilizing gentle pressure to pull materials off of the screen without impacting the screen’s integrity. This results in improved performance and a longer lifespan for your ballast water filter or other filtration technologies.

 

Why It’s Important

The importance of a properly functioning nozzle is simple – a water filtration system only works when it’s clean. Whether you are filtering ballast water before filling your tanks, protecting your oil and gas exploration equipment safe from organic oceanic materials, or prefiltering water for desalination, each filtration system should have the same thing in common  a reliable nozzle to clean your screen.

 

How it Works

The NozzleX uses passive suction to remove organic matter like debris and sediment from the filter screen. Through an innovative combination of consistent force and passive pressure, whereby the nozzle both actively removes material from the filter while allowing the naturally occurring changes in pressure to carry it away, this nozzle makes cleaning your filtration system an easy and automatic process.

This patented system moves around the filter screen automatically, using as little as 1/32nd the force of typical cleaning nozzles to offer a thorough cleaning with minimal wear. Then, the nozzle disposes of reject water through the system’s flushing chamber, guaranteeing that buildup won’t remain on your screen.

NozzleX is part of Filtersafe’s Everclear cleaning system, which includes the Smartweave screen filter. Working together, these two technologies provide exceptional filtration power while minimizing space. This ensures that operators can use their filtration system as long as possible.

A Closer Look At Other Nozzles

NozzleX vs Dynamic Spring-Loaded NozzlesFiltersafe nozzle nozzlex force chart

While Filtersafe relies on its patented proximity nozzle to consistently clean the screen at any pressure, dynamic spring-loaded nozzles use brute force to ensure their nozzles clean sufficiently at low operating pressure. More force means that both the nozzle and screen wear out faster, in fact, some dynamic spring-loaded nozzles need to be replaced every few weeks!

Floating & Brush-Loaded Nozzles vs Patented Proximity Nozzle

Some nozzles ‘float’ along the screen, never coming into contact with the screen. This reduces nozzle wear but decreases cleaning efficiency and in fact allows dirty backflow to slip out of the nozzle back into the filter’s interior, since there isn’t enough pressure keeping the dirty water inside of the nozzle head and moving towards the flush valve. Brush-loaded nozzles are intended to provide more ‘elbow grease’ to the nozzle’s cleaning capacity. However, the bristles wear out incredibly quickly, leaving the filter owner with what is essentially the previously described undesirable floating nozzle. Even before the bristles break and deform, they can push particles into the screen.

 

The Patented Concept That Sets Us Apart

Our nozzle is one of the most highly engineered aspects to our filter. Let us explain how this simple yet unique design provides the most effective and durable nozzle available.

Efficient Design

Each nozzle contains just 4 individual pieces. The low number of moving parts reduces the opportunities for something to break. In addition, you will not find a spring anywhere inside our nozzles! While other nozzles use springs to force the nozzle head close to or onto the screen when there is low operating pressure, our patented nozzle design equalizes the pressure inside and outside of the nozzle head, allowing it to be on the screen without utilizing damaging force.

Optimal Screen Interface

Because the nozzle is always firmly on the screen with minimal force, it causes absolutely no damage to the screen. Firstly, the nozzle is always applied with minimal, gentle force on the screen at all pressure ratings, and always less than 350 g/cm2. This means that the nozzle does not push dirt and suspended solids into the screen. This is a not uncommon occurrence that not only reduces the filtration capability of the screen, but can also create holes and invalidate the promised micron rating.

 

Additional Benefits of NozzleX

In the world of water filtration, NozzleX is truly a revolution. This unique cleaning tool offers several significant benefits to an automated filtration system, which can make a real difference in the quality and longevity of a system. Here are just a few of the unique benefits you can get from using NozzleX:

Continual System Operation

Firstly, NozzleX runs as part of the automated filtration system. There’s no need to halt system operation and clean out your filtration screens; instead, NozzleX will clean your screens throughout the filtration process.

Minimal Surface Area

In addition to its consistent cleaning functionality, the NozzleX is exceptionally compact. The nozzle takes up a mere 1% of the screen area, which allows your filtration system to continue running even while it’s being cleaned, and without significantly hindering the flow rate. This will result in greater filtration capacity and greater overall efficiency for your system.

Improved Performance

Dirty or clogged filters can have a serious impact on a filtration system’s efficacy. In fact, Filtersafe testing has shown that some systems lose performance in as little as six hours due to a buildup of a ‘cake’ like layer of dirt. In that time, a system’s flow rate can drop 37%, but NozzleX maintains a consistent flow rate throughout its operations. With NozzleX, your system always fully recovers so you’ll be able to get the optimum performance from your filtration system all day long.

Zero Screen Wear

Finally, one of the greatest benefits NozzleX provides is the way it minimizes screen wear. Other nozzle-based cleaning systems use significant force to remove debris from their filters, which can lead to punctures and other damage that cuts the screen’s lifespan short. NozzleX, in contrast, equalizes system pressure to use far less force — around 1.6 Bar (23psi) of head pressure. This means your filter screens suffer next to zero wear, allowing them to operate much longer than other screens.

Filtersafe nozzle cleaning screen

Let NozzleX Clean for You 

NozzleX ensures that a filtration system stays clean throughout operations, thereby making sure that the system remains effective and efficient. As part of Filtersafe’s Everclear system, NozzleX will provide users with a completely clean filter screen — and that will help guarantee superior performance from your filtration system.

To learn more about the NozzleX cleaning technology, contact Filtersafe today. Our team will be happy to answer questions and help you find the system that best suits your industry and your organization’s unique filtration needs.

Protecting Banana Plants from Fusarium: A Treatment Solution

banana plantation

Learn how Filtersafe is protecting the livelihood of millions of people and providing food security.

What is Fusarium Wilt

banana plantationBananas are a hugely important crop – 400 million people worldwide rely on bananas for a significant portion of their daily calories or as their source of income. This is why the fungus fusarium can have such tragic results if it makes its way to a banana field – once a field is infected, the entirety of the crop is damaged and essentially the field can never be reused because the disease can stay in the soil for as long as 50 years. The damage is so thorough and pervasive that it has been used to destroy drug crops in Colombia, as it not only kills the crop, but stays in the soil and prevents replanting for years.

Fusarium can be found naturally occurring in soils worldwide – from tropical rainforest to deserts to arctic tundra. The fungus causes the disease Fusarium wilt, also known as Panama disease. Despite its ubiquitous nature, the pathogen is only problematic when it makes its way to farms. This is what happened in the 1950s, when Fusarium contaminated banana farms in Central America, causing the Gros Michel species of banana to almost go extinct.

Though the damage is most severe for banana plants, fusarium can also cause damage to tomatoes, beans, sweet potatoes and others. The spread of Fusarium wilt disease has been felt most acutely by farmers in South East Asia, where the majority of the farms that have been impacted by the disease have been destroyed.

The Solution for Fusarium

 filtersafe installation to prevent fusariumUnlike other soil-dwelling fungi, Fusarium can’t be killed through fumigation methods, so farmers must look to other, innovative ways to protect their crops. Filtersafe, in combination with Bloom Agro, have developed a solution. In addition to occurring in the soil, fusarium can be introduced to farms through irrigation water. Since farmers in this area often divert river water to use for watering their crops, the otherwise free and plentiful water can be problematic if it isn’t properly treated before being used for irrigation. Filtersafe filters out suspended solids down to 25 microns, removing soil particles that could be harboring the disease and detritus that could impede the sterilization process. After the mechanical filtration to remove problematic organic material and other suspended solids, the filtered water goes on to be further disinfected by the Bloom Agro system.

The entire disinfection process is completed in just four steps:

  1. Prefiltration of water from source: The farmer can be using a reservoir, irrigation canal, or water directly from a river. In this step large particles and organic matter are prevented from entering the system.
  2. Mechanical filtration: Here, Filtersafe’s filter does its work, removing 98% of all substances in the water.
  3. Disinfection: The water is now treated by Bloom Agros’ special process.
  4. Contact time: Next, the water sits in a reservoir for a prescribed length of time, allowing the disinfection process to reach all organic material in the water, including the Fusarium, and rendering it inactive.

fusatrium treatment systemThe systems have already been installed in over 30 locations throughout the Philippines, successfully protecting crops and farmers. Even though there is a prefiltration step, there is still a large amount of total suspended solids (TSS) remaining in the water. The TSS is dangerous for most filters, since they cannot handle high dirt loads while filtering to such a fine degree. However, Filtersafe has engineered the only filter on the market that can safely filter incredibly ‘dirty’ water without clogging.

Multinational corporations also turn to filtration solutions to protect their industrial farms. Companies including La Frutera, Dole and Delmonte have all used our mechanical filtration to reduce the threat of fusarium to their fields and protect bananas for small farmers and consumers like you worldwide.

Product Specifications At A Glance

  • Product: Single/Compact & Multi Filters, From 3” up to 24”,
  • Filtration Degree: 25 μm
  • Flow Rate: From 60 m³/h to 1600 m³/h
  • Installation Date: 2016-2020

Benefits to Customer

  • Superb cleaning efficiency with minimal downtime using patented technology and screen design
  • Low power consumption (2 bar inlet pressure)
  • Low discharge of backwash wastewater
  • Smaller footprint compared to conventional filters