Heliosec set to simplify pesticide waste management

A French invention designed to contain and then concentrate pesticide waste for disposal using evaporation has been proving its worth in farm trials across the UK.
Syngenta’s Heliosec (pictured) is already widely used on the opposite side of the British Channel, with about 600 units currently in operation on French farms.
The device has been installed on 10 sites across England and Scotland this year, with the aim of finding out whether it works effectively in cooler, duller conditions, and the data collected has now been submitted to the Environment Agency for review.
The Heliosec is a roofed, galvanised and plastic-lined steel frame that uses wind and sunlight to evaporate pesticide-contaminated water, leaving a concentrated pesticide residue contained in the liner.
The liner is then collected and disposed of by a waste disposal contractor once a year and Syngenta’s Norfolk area manager Rob Witherow says its simplicity and cost-effectiveness are major advantages.
“Its start-up cost is similar to a biobed – about €5,000 in France – and it’s very easy to assemble and install. After that the only expense is replacing and disposing of the contaminated liner,” he says.
“It can also safely handle difficult-to-treat substances such as metaldehyde that are difficult to break down in biobeds.”
The biobed – a lined pit that uses straw, soil and peat-free compost to retain and degrade pesticide waste – is currently the most popular system in the UK.
However, it results in large volumes of material to spread on fields when its contents are renewed every five years.
“Conversely, the Heliosec can turn large amounts of waste into something that weighs just a couple of kilos, which is easier and cheaper to dispose of,” adds Mr Witherow.
Half of all point-source pesticide pollution is generated from the sprayer filling area, where chemical spillages are most likely to occur.
Contaminated water is also generated when overfilling the sprayer and washing down the sprayer or slug pellet applicator externally.
Regulations dictate that farms must dispose of any diluted spillages or washings out in the field; however, it is not always practical to do so with collected waste from the filling area.
So far there has been three different models since the systems’ launch in 2008, and 2009 Syngenta Farm Sprayer Operator of the Year (FSOOTY) Andrew Myatt (pictured) has used all three models.
Mr Myatt is the farm foreman and sprayer operator on the 2,200ha Stowell Park Estate in Gloucestershire and covers the equivalent of 11,000ha of combinable crops each year, which involves a huge amount of filling and washing down.
When the farm’s silage clamps became redundant, he used the concrete area to good effect and created a sprayer filling and wash-down area that had the ability to contain water.
It was therefore easy to plumb in the Heliosec Mk 1 when offered the chance to trial it in the UK for the first time in 2011.
“It cost us very little to set up because we already had the concrete filling area and it is much simpler than a biobed or biofilter,” explains Mr Myatt.
The first model was achieving a modest evaporation rate of 1,500 litres in its first year of installation, highlighting the concerns over performance in the notoriously dull British weather.
Mr Myatt received the Mk 2 Heliosec, which had a flat, angled roof – as opposed to the previous rounded roof – designed to increase airflow.
This performed to the same level as the Mk 1 and Mr Myatt says the breakthrough came when the Mk3 arrived.
“It was the same as the previous model, but instead of having a galvanised steel roof, it had been replaced with Perspex,” he explains.
The Mk 2 and Mk 3 have been working side by side in the same conditions and the latest model has shown improved evaporation rates of between 2,000-2,500 litres/year and even performs adequately in the winter months.
Despite the large volume of spraying Mr Myatt carries out each year, he says his two Heliosec systems cope adequately with the contaminated water that he generates, although tank washings still go out in the field.
“I think that is still the right place for those larger volumes, but it does give us the flexibility to use the Heliosec if we need to.
“It has been great for spillages and washing down the sprayer and slug pellet applicator. In the future we hope to change the roof on the Mk 2 to bring its performance in line with the Mk 3,” says Mr Myatt.
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