Behind the Tap Series:
CCWA Pelletizing Operator Bryant Bond
Meet CCWA Pelletizing Operator Bryant Bond. Bondo (as he is known) works at our Pelletizing Facility that is part of the W.B. Casey Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) in Jonesboro. This facility handles all solids generated by wastewater treated at the W.B Casey WRRF.
Or, as Bondo puts it, “We treat the solids that are left over after we treat the water.”
The solids sent to the Pelletizing Facility run through multiple processes in order to further treat for proper disposal. The sludge solids are first dewatered using belt presses to produce a drier material called “cake.” The cake is then conveyed into two rotary kiln dryers that are heated using natural gas. The martial discharge from the drum dryers is at a 95% solids concentrated material in the form of pellets. The sanitized pellets meet all federal and state regulation. This complex solid treatment method produces a Class ‘A’ biosolids product that is sold as fertilizer and registered with the State of Georgia under the trade name Agri-Plus 650TM. Biosolids in the pellet form are highly preferred by the land appliers “aka farmers” because of its versatility and easy application capabilities.
Pelletizing staff produces approximately 5,000 tons of dry biosolids a year, or 100 tons per week. CCWA has a contract with ERTH Products to purchase and pick up pellets every week.
CCWA is one of a few utilities in southeastern United States with a pelletizing operation. It has a long history of providing the highest quality fertilizer product and has earned several awards including the Georgia Association of Water Professionals’ Biosolids/Residuals Program of Excellence for Large Operating Systems – Greater than 5 Dry Ton Category for its 2018 operations.
A typical shift for Bondo includes monitoring SCADA (a computer system for gathering and analyzing real time data), performing rounds every two hours to make sure all components are working properly including odor control and heat/temperature, and taking samples. Part of his duties as an operator is to load pellets onto the trucks using equipment like you see in the photo. He also weighs the trucks before and after they are loaded. When he talks about this part of his job, a big smile spreads across his face.
“I’ve loved equipment since I was six years old when my dad introduced me to it,” he adds.
He can be a man of few words, preferring to quietly do his job out of the spotlight (which is typical of a lot of water professionals). But when you get him talking, he can’t say enough about how much he enjoys the uniqueness of what he does, his coworkers in Pelletizing and the support he has received over the past 20 years at CCWA.
There is no down time when you are in the biosolids business. That includes weekends, holidays and inclement weather days. As you and your family enjoy time together this Thanksgiving, we hope you will also be thankful for water professionals like Bondo working behind the tap making sure everything is running like it should. #waterprofessional