La Crosse Company Helps Keep Water Clean At Panama Canal

A company in La Crosse is using environmentally-friendly technology to clean water at the Panama Canal.

Inov8 International built two custom evaporators for the Panama Canal Authority to get rid of bilge water from cargo ships. The evaporators separate out the engine oil that makes bilge water an environmental hazard, turning the water into steam and collecting the salt and oil left over.

“If the canal (authority) can take it off their hands, eliminate it in the most cost-effective way and it’s also environmentally friendly, then they’ve got a win-win,” said Rebecca Faas, president of Inov8.

Evaporators aren’t new technology, but Faas said what is unique about Inov8’s machines is the ability to use the collected oil as fuel for the machine itself.

“I can’t think of a better way you can handle a waste product,” Faas said. “When you have a direct approach that you go right to the generation of the dirty material and deal with it on site, there’s less regulation, there’s less handling of it, there’s less cost involved.”

The evaporators’ main energy supply is diesel fuel, which the machines can automatically switch to if they run out of collected oil.

Faas said the alternative for some companies is letting the water evaporate naturally, leaving behind a sludge that either has to be burned or buried in leak-proof containers — both methods that could be harmful to the environment.

“If you can take it off in oil and use it as fuel, it doesn’t have to dealt with again. It’s eliminated completely,” Faas said.

Inov8 officials hope to use this technology to eliminate dirty water from other industries too, from car wash companies to the food industry.