Welcome to all of our HeadsUp Readers,
Here we are, already well into November. With WEFTEC behind us, our team is focusing on responding to requests by all of our visitors at the show and finishing out the year for our existing customers. There was a lot of interest in our new developments this year. If you didn’t make it to Chicago, here is an enlightening article on Headworks International’s newest technologies.
Thank you to each of you who stopped by the Headworks WEFTEC Booth to introduce yourselves as HeadsUp readers. It meant a lot to me that you would take the time out of a very busy conference to say hello! The feedback you all give me makes a huge difference, I assure you.
Speaking of writing, did you know that November is NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month? The challenge is to write the first 50,000 words of a draft of a novel or memoir between November 1st and November 30th. I’ve been working on a memoir for a while now. As I already had 30,000 words of the draft pounded out, I’ve taken on the challenge to add 50,000 more by month’s end. I work much better with deadlines and as of today the 10th I’ve added about 12,000 more words. By the end of the month, my first draft should be complete and then I can begin the arduous editing process, which I’m perversely looking forward to.
Our regular readers will have read about my father in past issues. And, yes, he’s in my memoir, of course. People who meet him are always surprised that he is 94 as he looks and acts like a very fit man in his early 70’s. Just last night at our favorite local sushi place, the manager was amazed when Dad pointed to a beer sign and mentioned that he had served on Okinawa during WWII, now the home of Orion Beer and the Orion Beer Fest. Next time we’re back, she’s promised that the meal’s on her!
How did he achieve his never-ending youthful attitude and appearance? We now have a name for it: he’s a Super Ager. Super Agers have certain things in common, as you can learn in this article that pulls all of the studies together. You too can be a Super Ager. Dad’s tips to his agelessness? He’s rowed 20 minutes a day 6 days a week for the last 40 years; he generally eats healthily on fish, fruits and vegetables (TIP: he has a cup of blueberries with his breakfast each day); he exercises his brain with his voracious reading habits, world travel and political debates; and he hangs out with friends and family more than once a week. His smile is famous and wherever he goes, people immediately have a crush on him. This can be your future, too!
Two years ago, our house flooded in Harvey and we ended up selling it. Since then, we’ve moved three times, always to high rise apartments, the higher the better. It’s time we settled down, so we’ve bought a condominium on the 19th floor of one of the older high rises in Houston. As it still has all of its 1980’s appliances, we’ve been spending weekends visiting Best Buy and other showrooms and googling online reviews of various appliances. While doing this research, I came across this article on bacteria in our washing machines. It’s a cautionary tale about how sometimes trying to be eco friendly by washing in cold water can be deadly, particularly to babies whose immune systems are still fragile. Fortunately for most of us, we have built up our resistance to the normal bacteria in our own homes, so in general cold water washing is fine. But keep this article in mind when you have guests!
OK, I have to wrap this up and get another couple of thousand words knocked out on my draft. An average book has 70,000 to 120,000 words. I can do this thing, one word at a time, just like every other life challenge. Like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. Words to live by. Actually, that’s 9 words to live by… maybe I add them into the memoir now.
Wishing you well on getting your exercise in for your mind and body this month. Keep thinking young!
Michele LaNoue
Headworks International Inc.
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Missed us at WEFTEC 2019? Read about what’s new here.
What New Technologies Have the Headworks Team Developed?
WEFTEC 2019 is now behind us. It was Headworks International’s 25th time exhibiting at North American’s largest water and wastewater show and conference. For all who could not participate in person, we thought it would be interesting to recap the latest products and processes we presented to the trade show visitors, including many clients, engineering consultants, representative firms, academics, and students. People from around the world visit this show each year to learn what new technologies, trends and insights are available in the water, wastewater and reusable water industry.
New Offerings in Screening Technologies:
The MS Series Multi-Rake Bar Screens are undisputedly the most utilized types of screens in the world. What seems like a few short decades ago, Headworks introduced the new way of screening physical debris and protecting pumping stations and treatment plants with its high performance and low maintenance workhorse. The Headworks MS1 and MS2 Screens established numerous industry trends, improving operations throughout the plant for utilities around the world.
We continue expanding this trend with the all new MS3, a smaller unit for channels of less than 4 feet (1.2m) wide. This powerful but affordable iteration of our technology will allow operators of smaller plants to focus on other parts of the operation, knowing that their screening system is taking care of business day and night.
Additionally, our team has developed a 2mm version of our bar screen which definitely caught lots of attention at the show. Headworks was the leader in offering the advantages of a 3/16” (4mm) bar spacing and now we’ve taken the technology one step farther. The 2mm screen delivers a very high removal rate while avoiding the operational challenges of screens with perforated elements which require spray water and brushes, both high-maintenance items. If the spray nozzles and brushes are not frequently maintained, the result is a dramatic reduction in the screen efficiency. Better yet, we’ve been able to retrofit our long-term customers’ MS Bar Screens with the new 2mm screen field systems, thereby increasing their screening capture rates while saving them capital costs.
Visitors at our booth saw that Headworks now offers optional “J-shaped” screen field bars for maximizing the screen field area in smaller applications with high flow. An L-Shape version with a much flatter screen field again allows for more screenings when high flow and a limited water depth needs to be handled.
New Offerings in the Biological Treatment Process:
On the wastewater biological process side, Headworks Bio has been hard at work in its R&D department, as usual. The Company’s technical offerings have further expanded into the Food & Beverage sector with our EnergyCell™ process, Headworks Bio’s patented anaerobic MBBR version. The Anaerobic MBBR technology is particularly of interest also to customers dealing with the challenges of landfills and other high BOD producing industries.
Another area of expansion is the energy/oil&gas/petrochemical sector. Water reuse or water disposal in that sector increasingly requires improved treatment processes in the field due to climate changes and fracking operations in arid locations. With its high operational reliability and small footprint, the MBBR biological treatment process is more than ever well suited to satisfy the industry’s requirements. A huge benefit for our energy sector clients is the wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise our senior process experts bring to their challenges. Their decades of real operational end user experience in this sector gives our customers confidence that Headworks Bio understands their problems because we’ve been there. We design systems which deliver truly “end-user friendly” solutions based on life experience, not just theory.
Participation in the Conference Presentation Portion of WEFTEC 2019:
This year, in collaboration between Headworks Bio and Black & Veatch, a paper was presented during the Conference portion of WEFTEC 2019 called “A Process Model-Based Assessment of Water Reuse Technology Selection Incorporating Regional Cost Factors.” The presenter was Dylan Christenson (Black & Veatch) and the authors were Andrew Shaw (Black & Veatch) and Dr. Somnath Basu (Headworks International), assisted by Paul Gallego (Headworks International).
In this paper, water reuse technologies were assessed for use in three different regions of the United States: California, Florida, and Texas. Each had similar effluent treatment requirements, but distinctly different capital and operating cost factors. The abstract presents a desktop study of three different state-of-the-art biological treatment technologies – moving bed biological reactor (MBBR), integrated fixed film activated sludge (IFAS) reactor and membrane bioreactor (MBR) – with respect to conventional activated sludge (CAS). Contact us if you are interested in more details of this study.
Interested in learning more about these new offerings? We have the team that understands your challenges! Please contact us at hw@headworksintl.com or +1-713-647-6667.
Have you joined the challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel this month? Be inspired here.
Many of us, like Michele, have living examples of Super Agers in our families. Learn the secret to youth here.
A German hospital’s move towards being more sustainable has deadly results. Learn when to wash in cold water and when not to here.
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