Resource equipment specialist RER Group (ASX: RGD) has announced that it has secured the Australian rights to the Turbo-Mist range of evaporator products in an exclusive three year initial deal. Manufactured by Slimline Manufacturing of Canada, the evaporator units are utilised in a variety of mining, industrial and agricultural applications to remove excess water through patented accelerated evaporation technology.
RER acquired Australia's only rental fleet of the evaporators in June 2009 and achieved significant success on a major evaporation project for QNI in Townsville. Subsequent work has been secured with customers such as Xstrata and Rio Tinto and the company is in the process of expanding its fleet to meet indicative demand levels.
Accelerated evaporation can often provide the only solution to circumstances where there is nowhere to pump excess water or where capacity for discharging excess water off-site is restricted.
The evaporator units accelerate the rate of natural evaporation that occurs to water in bodies such as dams, mine pits and lakes. Whereas natural evaporation is limited to only the surface layer of water that is exposed to the air, the evaporation units break down water into small particles and spray it into the air, so that the surface area of water exposed to the air is significantly increased. The water particles are suspended in the air long enough for evaporation to occur.
RER Group founder and executive director, Mr Tony Ryder, said that based on the success of the first project, where approximately 600 million litres were evaporated at over 200l/s during operation, and the close working relationship that has been developed with Canadian-based Slimline, the signing of an exclusive agency agreement was the logical next step.
"We have taken the process one step further," Mr Ryder said, "by introducing a communication process remotely linking the evaporators to RER-designed and built weather stations. When pre-set minimum conditions are met, the weather stations automatically activate the system utilising our power and pumping equipment to feed water into the evaporators.
If weather conditions turn unfavourable the system then automatically closes down. This minimises the level of human involvement and gives the system 24-hour operating capability, even turning itself on at night when the conditions are right."
Mr Ryder added that the company is currently working on a number of quality opportunities for evaporation projects in Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory, with blue-chip companies. "Based on the rising level of interest in this new water management technique we are confident of building a large specialist fleet for the Australian market."
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