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CULTIVATION Slash your Water Use by 50% or More

Interesting article Zen Group

Insights from four cannabis operations practicing or planning water reclamation.

Bryce Nichter, COO, Zen Group, Washington state

Bryce Nichter’s first water reclamation install was driven by necessity: a 30,000-square-foot indoor facility lacked a municipal sewer connection. By adding an Automated Reclaimed Condensate System (ARCS) by HydroLogic Purification Systems to reclaim HVAC condensate, Nichter was able to limit wastewater significantly. The systems have become standard for his installations as Zen Group COO.

Nichter compares HVAC condensate to distilled or rainwater, but he warns against using condensate without further treatment.

“The precipitate water is dangerous for a couple of reasons. Although it is pure from a mineral standpoint and has very little dissolved solids, there can be some heavy metals and certain types of glues and solvents from the [equipment] coils and plumbing. Those contaminants can be toxic to a plant,” he explains.

“Even more importantly, because it’s a constantly wet environment—it’s trickling a lot of water, but slowly, over a long period of time—there can be a lot of bacterial growth that can be harmful to a plant coming out of that effluent,” Nichter says.

The HydroLogic ARCS earns Nichter’s praise because it targets reclamation. “It focuses specifically on capturing and remediating the things that could come off the precipitate from your HVAC systems,” he explains. “It can also operate at lower pressures, as water comes in slowly. It filters potential contaminants, but there’s also sterilization to manage the potential microbial component as well.”

Nichter sees an 80-percent return of water using this method. An added benefit is that the ARCS doesn’t produce a waste stream like reverse osmosis, but its benefits extend beyond conservation.

“We’re incentivized by the price of marijuana to have really high-quality water, because there’s a linear correlation to your yield. But large RO systems are very expensive,” he says. “By recycling this much water, you don’t have to buy as large an RO system to feed your business. You get high-quality water and an overall savings from the water bill and the initial capital expenditure of your reverse osmosis system.”

Nichter encourages growers to work water reclamation systems into development time lines from the start. “It’s tougher to add them in down the line than to do it on the initial install,” he says.

“As an industry, we’re learning. ... We’re digging in and trying to build businesses to truly last. When you learn how to do that, you want to focus on sustainability and ROIs that pay out in the long run,” Nichter advises. “As margins get lower, these are certain efficiencies to not only keep the community and regulators happy, but there’s actually some financial savings.”

https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/slash-your-water-use-by-50-or-more/