Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1277345
10 © Copyright Powder & Bulk Engineering 2020 NEW INSTALLATION: Bulk bag filler helps company grow bottom line A company that recovers nutrients from waste water and then con- verts them to fertilizer pellets uses a gain-in-weight bag-filling system to efficiently fill the pellets into bulk bags. Founded in 2005, Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technolo- gies Inc., Vancouver, B.C., provides nutrient recovery and phosphorus management solutions for wastewater treatment facilities. The company's patented chemical precipitation process removes phosphorous and am- monia (nitrogen) from a treatment facility's dewatering stream and creates highly pure crystalline pellets that are marketed as a commercial fertilizer called Crystal Green. To transport the fertilizer from a treatment facili- ty to a fertilizer distributor, the company needed to find a reliable way to fill the pellets into bulk bags. Recovering nutrients from wastewater In ecologically sensitive areas, many municipal waste- water treatment facilities have mandates that limit the amount of phosphorous and ammonia that can be dis- charged into a watershed. To ensure regulatory com- pliance, a facility must remove a percentage of these chemicals from the wastewater stream before the treat- ed water can be discharged from the facility. To accom- plish this in an environmentally friendly manner and generate a revenue-producing product, Ostara devel- oped a proprietary technology that removes up to 90 percent of the phosphorus and 40 percent of the ammo- nia from the sludge-dewatering stream. The controlled process creates magnesium ammonium phosphate hexahydrate pellets (also called struvite), which contains 5 percent nitrogen, 28 percent phos- phorous (as phosphorous pentoxide), and 10 percent magnesium. The mineral-rich struvite pellets are used as a slow-release fertilizer, providing nutrients that pro- mote plant growth in turf, nursery, and other special- ty agriculture applications. Removing the phosphorus and ammonia from the dewatering stream also helps prevent struvite scale formation in pipes, pumps, and The struvite pellets, which are stored in four flexible-fabric stor- age silos directly above the bulk bag filler, discharge from a silo to a common feed chute that directs them into a bulk bag.