Crisafulli Rotomite Dredge Case Histories and Testimonials

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         rotomite 180P

Rotomite-180P

 

 

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 Industrial and Municipal applications

 

1. Dredging highly abrasive mill scale.

2. A major US food processing company to clean and maintain its factory waste products settling lagoons.

3. Field report – Comparison to competitor’s product.

4. Dredging contractor for Industrial, Municipal and Agricultural applications. 

5. Dredge benzene from the bottom of a 12-foot deep 1000 x 500 foot wide basin and discharge the benzene into the water column for biologic treatment (BUGS).

6. Dredge Caustic Soda from a Mud Lake.

7. Dredge Caustic and Abrasive Materials settled solids at a zinc mining & processing facility at a rate of 50 - 80 m3/hour in South Korea. 

8. Dredge toxic waste pond containing red mud from a aluminum production facility in Venezuela.

9. Self-propelled dredging system as part of a Municipal biosolids management program designed to reduce the cost of sludge disposal and increase solids detention time in-plant. 

 

 

1.  July 2007. Crisafulli's Rotomite-6000. Dredging highly abrasive mill scale. Customer: The customer purchased its first SRS Crisafulli Rotomite, a Model 180P, Serial #14123 in August 1997, and purchased its second Rotomite, a 6000 model, in the summer of 2007.

Application & reason for dredging: The customer provides slag processing, metal recovery, material handling, scrap management, surface conditioning ("scarping") and a wide range of specialty services to the North American steel industry. The customer uses its Rotomite-6000 to remove mill scale to maintain capacity in its cooling water lagoon that supplies wash water to the steel processing facility. The process helps the customer maintain the plant's cooling water capacity at satisfactory levels. They operate the dredge 1 to 2 hours per day, year around. Their dredged mill scale slurry is about 20% solids by volume. Mill scale is a very abrasive material that weighs 168 lbs per cubic foot." Site description: One Lagoon with a berm to separate the lagoon into two cells. The lagoon is unlined and measures approximately 220' x 250' with a depth of approximately 8 feet. Quantity of material dredged: The dredging and dewatering process produces 11 tons of solids every minute. Description of material dredged: Mill scale is a black, slimy, heavy sludge that contains heavy metal filings, oil, and mill scale. Mill scale is a milling waste generated while rolling metal in metal extrusion industries. Iron mill scale generally contains more than 70% of FE (Ferrous Oxide). The customer's plant superintendent paraphrased his dredge application as follows: "We have had a used machine (Crisafulli Rotomite-180P) since April 1997. The amount of material in the lagoon was to the point that we could not even turn the dredge during initial operations. That machine has since removed approximately 65,000 metric tons of material." Testimonial: the plant superintendent asserts: "The machines are very dependable, the design is excellent, turning is great, and all workmanship is to be commended. If others would like to call I would be happy to talk with them." 

To request the name and contact information for this customer contact Crisafulli's Sales Manager, Maureen Lundman. Tel: 800-442-7867 Email: maureenl@crisafulli.com 

2. September 2007. A major US food processing company purchased a Crisafulli Rotomite-6000 dredge to replace two existing dredges made by another company, to clean and maintain its factory waste products settling lagoons, and made the following comments about Crisafulli product quality and customer service - the Rotomite dredge was delivered on time, per specifications, and in good condition; the Rotomite-6000 was good value, performed as expected and met the customer's needs; the Crisafulli sales staff was knowledgeable about the dredge, provided adequate technical information, and Crisafulli's Operation & Maintenance Manuals contained adequate parts/service information. 

The Customer said that these factors were very important in its buying decision - the Rotomite-6000's performance, product features, price, Crisafulli's warranty, the overall quality of the product, Crisafulli's brand reputation, and availability of after-sale service and support. The customer rated these aspects of the Crisafulli's customer service as excellent - employee friendliness and courtesy, employee product knowledge, and ease of purchasing and ordering, and ease of payment. The customer it was particularly pleased with Crisafulli service, parts availability, and trouble shooting knowledge of the Crisafulli Factory staff.

To request the name and contact information for this customer contact Crisafulli's Sales Manager, Maureen Lundman. Tel: 800-442-7867. Email: maureenl@crisafulli.com

3. Customer Comparison of Rotomite-6000 to competitive products. Crisafulli Sales Engineer's field report (May 2003). “The Rotomite-6000 was a pleasure to operate. We dredged bottom ash and silt. The Rotomite Cobra Cutterhead's down pressure and articulation capabilities make the Rotomite-6000 effective against crusted sludge.

The Customer hated the competitor’s dredge that they rented last year; the hydraulics were plumbed wrong, not corrected for 3 weeks during which time the customer couldn't dredge. When finally fixed, customer's dredge was ineffective because its cutterhead was on a cable with no down pressure, and no articulation. In addition, it was difficult to use competitor’s drive system. The competitor’s dredge had no traction in ponds without a solid bottom. When maneuvering it was a constant problem to keep the float line from getting tangled by the drive system. In addition, the customer found the competitor's float-line to be awkward to handle; it was 50' sections with floats clamped around it. The customer had to use a backhoe to move the long, heavy tubing sections; and the floats continually moved to inconvenient spots on the tubing.

Our customer was pumping through approximately 2 miles of pipe (the majority was down hill) with two booster pumps in the pipeline. The Rotomite-6000 pumped 1,700 GPM of slurry through 220 feet of float-line with 10' of lift.

The customer remarked favorably regarding improvements Crisafulli made since the Rotomite 180P and was impressed with the Rotomite-6000's production capabilities.”

 

4. Rotomite-6000 contract dredging of various materials. Customer: Georgia Dredging And Dewatering/Eco-Vac. Contacts: Jay Matthews and David Grapengeter. Type of Facility: Environmental Services & turnkey Dredging & Dewatering services.

Georgia Dredging and Dewatering developed out of the need to contact services other than those previously provided by vacuuming and jetting alone. David Grapengeter, President of ECO-VAC, Inc., and Jay Matthews teamed up to build a strong full-service dredging and dewatering company capable of meeting the needs of Industrial, Municipal and Agricultural applications.

Georgia Dredging asked SRS Crisafulli how to get into the dredging and dewatering business. Several meetings later Jay and David decided to invest in a dredging system and a dewatering device. The system had to be completely portable as they were intent on doing work anywhere they would secure projects.

The ROTOMITE-6000 was the perfect choice for their needs. The unit was ordered with the most durable floating discharge pipe available for long life under 'load and unload' applications. The polyethylene pipe with integral foam flotation system provided a complete, long lasting and durable system.

The SRS Crisafulli Sludge Removal System is the backbone of Georgia Dewatering's successful portable field operations. Eco-Vac President and Owner, David Grapengeter, reported that the ROTOMITE had the capacity to take out a large amount of solids in a short time. The ROTOMITE-6000 remained busy since its delivery in the Spring of 2002 to a municipal job site in northern Georgia. Its owners are now looking at maintaining marinas, as well as municipal water and wastewater ponds, in Georgia and contiguous states.

Jay Matthews, President, says of his ROTOMITE-6000, "It's a great machine. Feel free to have anyone contact me for a reference."  Brad M. Kaplan, National Sales Manager, May 22, 2003.


 

5. Rotomite 180 Application - Dredging Benzyne at 12-foot Depth.  Marshall-Bond Pumps, Jeffrey A. Simpson, New London, WA; Tel: 920 982-7709, Fax 920 982-7718, simpson@pop.athenet.net

DREDGING CASE STUDY: Project Location: Northern Illinois, Dates: April-November 1992, 1993. Equipment Used: Crisafulli Rotomite 180P Self Propelled Dredge. 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Dredge benzene from the bottom of a 12-foot basin approximately 1,000 feet long and 500 feet wide and discharge it into the water column so biologic treatment (BUGS) could work. Once the basin contained an acceptable level (%) of benzene the basin could be closed down without having to dredge the exposed material and dispose of it. 

KEY ELEMENTS OF JOB: The customer had an existing conventional cable hydraulic dredge doing the work for about two years. The problem was that the discharged dredged material would only stay suspended in the water column for about 10-15 minutes and then settle back down to the bottom of the basin. Therefore the exposure time for the "bugs" to react with the benzene was too short. Another problem was the layout of the basin. The basin was irregular in shape making complete dredging impossible with a conventional dredge. Additionally, there were a number of floating aerators in the pond suspended and secured by cables making maneuverability hard and costly to reposition the conventional cable dredge.

SOLUTION: The customer procured a Crisafulli Rotomite 180P self-propelled dredge on a lease/purchase option basis. The Rotomite 180P was equipped with a 180 horsepower turbo-charged diesel engine, hydrostatic hydraulic power/control unit and a special cutterhead with an "agitator" head. The Agitator head sheared the dredged benzene material to a much finer degree and therefore increased the surface exposure to the "bugs" and provided a much longer exposure time for the "bugs" to work.

RESULTS: The self-propelled feature enabled the operator to dredge in areas where the conventional dredge could not. Also the operator could traverse the basin in any direction at any time without waiting to reposition the cabling system as with the conventional dredge. The labor cost alone saved the customer about $250.00 per day not to mention the increased production time of the Rotomite 180P. Additionally, the special "agitator" head was estimated to increase the solids suspension/exposure time by 200%.

 

6.  Dredge Caustic Soda from a Mud Lake. Alumina Partners of Jamaica, Construction Department, June 25, 1996, Gary Benson, 
Fax 809 962-4114.  In a letter addressed to Jeffrey K. Minsell, Sales Engineer, SRS Crisafulli, Inc. Benson wrote:  "The Rotomite 180P performed very well for us to this date. Our application is very bad environment dredging in a caustic soda mud lake. All components are fine to this point except the few aluminum parts which we expect to be sacrificial."

"This dredge is highly recommended by us for our operation and needs. It is well suited for a two man operation and does not take a competent person very long to get the feel of operating the cutterhead under thick mud.”

7. Stainless Steel Rotomite Application - Dredging Caustic and Abrasive Materials in South Korea.  Customer: Zinc mining & processing facility, South Korea.

Problem: How to remove 200,000m3 of 325-mesh goethite (pH 2.2 - 2.5 range; sulfuric acid) from a lined pond with dimensions of 120m x 253m. Since the material had settled and was resting on the pond bottom, dredging was selected as the appropriate removal method. No standard acid-resistant dredge was in production which would enable the client to consistently feed a dewatering process down-line from the pond.

Solution: Crisafulli was selected based on Crisafulli's ability to design and manufacture custom dredges for unique customer applications, and Crisafulli’s experience in aggressive dredging environments, including caustic, corrosive and abrasive sites.

The Crisafulli 180P Rotomite Dredge was selected, capable of removing the customer's settled solids at a rate of 50 - 80 m3/hour. The dredge's hull and all wetted parts were fabricated of stainless steel to deal with the extremely corrosive environment. High-grade acid resistant coatings were applied to all components above deck which might be subject to contact with the low pH material. The dredge's cutterhead was fitted with a protection system to prevent accidental penetration of the pond's liner.

  

8. Stainless Steel Rotomite Application in Venezuela.  SRS Crisafulli shipped its first dredge to the South American Continent in 1996. Valued at approximately $400,000, the dredging system comprised the Crisafulli Rotomite-180P self-propelled dredge, floating discharge line, a trailer-mounted booster pump, and accessories, as well as spare parts for a 2-year period. In December 1996, Crisafulli engineers followed the dredge to Matanzas, Venezuela where it was installed in a toxic waste pond containing red mud from a aluminum production facility. The purchaser requested that Crisafulli work diligently for the earliest possible delivery so that hazardous wastes could be removed from holding ponds before wastes overflowed into a nearby river. Crisafulli's manufacturing team responded by working many evenings and weekends to avert what the client called a potential environmental catastrophe.

The dredge system was unique, custom-engineered, and Made in Montana -- to solve the urgent problems associated with hazardous waste remediation -- around the world."

9. Municipal Rotomite Application, Decatur, Arkansas.  Serving the Municipal Water/Wastewater Industry, the Town of Decatur, Ark., is using a self-propelled dredging system as part of a new biosilids management program designed to reduce the cost of sludge disposal and increase solids detention time in-plant. While less than 1,000 people live in Decatur, the town's wastewater treatment plant handles flow equivalent to a population of 40,000. The primary contributor to these flows is a poultry processing plant. Over the Last several years, the town's Utility Manger, Rick McClain, had been laying the groundwork for planned land application of Class B biosolids. Until early 1996, Decatur had contracted for the removal of pond wastes, which were dredged up by a private form and hauled away for land application.

The total throughout of Decatur’s plant is 2 million gallons per day. The plant accepts combined storm and sanitary flows, as well as the industrial processing wastes of its primary customer. While certain types of trash and solids are more prevalent during storm water events, the plant typically handles high amounts of solids due to the industrial nature of poultry waste.

To remove trash and large solids, flows are screened as they enter the plant. Material then goes through another four-stage process including a primary lagoon where settling occurs, an activated aeration cell, then a second lagoon (polishing pond), ending in a sludge handling pond from which the biosolids are extracted. The town also had two equalization ponds and a waste holding pond.

The city's goal was to land apply an estimated 1 million gallons of biosolids each summer. To accomplish this, the town needed a means to produce consistent solids flow from the final sludge-handling pond.

In early 1996, Decatur purchased a Rotomite dredge from SRS Crisafulli. The dredge is equipped with an auger/cutterhead and is capable of transferring approximately 800 to 1,000 gallons per minute of biosolids with its 6 inch J-Series sludge pump. The ponds are lined with clay, so Decatur elected to have the dredge fitted with a depth indicator which enables the operator to control the depth of the dredge cut.

The dredge is used to help keep all the town's lagoons cleaned out. Biosolids are dredges up for land disposal only about once a quarter, but the dredge is used about once a week on the other ponds. An outboard hydraulically controlled steering propels the dredge. It doesn't need a cabling traverse system. The town uses a crane to move the 12,000 pound dredge from pond to pond.

When pumping from the final sludge-handling pond, the dredge pumps the biosolids ashore through a floating 8-inch discharge line. With an experienced operator, the dredging operation can produce a consistent percentage of solids at the shoreline. It is not uncommon for the equipment to produce sludge of up to 10 percent solids by weight, or 60 to 80 percent solids by volume.

At the shoreline, the biosolids are fed to a waiting truck, from which they are land applied (surface spread) on nearby farms. One truck equipped with a vacuum pump is used in the operation. There is no surge tank at the shoreline; rather, any overflow is contained and returned to the pond.

Decatur expected to save approximately $50,000 a year with a fully operational biosolids management plan."

The 27-foot long and eight foot wide dredge is powered by a 180 HP Isuzu diesel engine. The dredge is designed to be operated by one person, but can carry two people safely. It can excavate to a depth of 15-feet and at a speed of up to 10-feet per minute.