Delivering optimum performance is a must for a wastewater treatment plant. The plant must remain in near-continuous operation, and filter water to comply with stringent water quality norms. At the same time, factors such as cost of power consumption as well as repairs or maintenance might add to the cost of running the plant.
Besides cost-effective wastewater treatment systems, Inovar offers annual maintenance contracts to help reduce the operation and maintenance costs of water treatment plants.
Monitoring certain plant parameters could help users better optimize plant operations and save costs
Consider monitoring the following parameters to optimize your water treatment plant operations
Turbidity of effluent and water
Turbidity of the influent
The influent turbidity includes the turbidity of raw water, coagulate particles, and added chemicals. Hence, it always stands higher than the turbidity of raw water. This is also called coagulated turbidity.
Turbidity of settled water
This denotes the turbidity of water between the stages of filtration, typically when the water emerges out from the clarifier and flows into the filter. This is also referred to as inter-stage turbidity
Why monitor turbidity
Monitoring the turbidity often helps gauge the efficiency of the clarifiers and filters.
The inter-stage turbidity is subtracted from the influent turbidity, and the result is again divided by influent turbidity. This yields the percentage of solids removed by the clarifier.
To obtain the percentage of solids captured by the filters, calculate the difference between inter-stage turbidity and influent turbidity, and divide it by inter-stage turbidity.
If the chemical dosage is properly administered, the percentage of solids removed from the wastewater is fairly high.
Head loss
Head loss is the amount of pressure or energy lost by a fluid due to obstacles such as changes in pipe size, and turbulence created by the velocity of the flowing water and the roughness of the pipe, channel walls, or fittings. In a filter, material buildup within the filter will cause friction leading to head loss.
In a water treatment plant, headloss is monitored across clarifiers and filters.
The clarifier will flush after about every two hours. If the headloss shown after each event is close to the initial setting, it means that the water is being adequately cleaned.
The flow of the filter stops when the clarifier flushes. Hence, the filter will show corresponding changes to the headloss. Filter head loss might be shown as negative depending on the configuration of monitoring devices.
It is advised to collect the head loss data for over 10 hours to obtain the best possible actionable data.
Why monitor headloss
Head loss represents the energy used by water to overcome the friction against pipe walls and filers. For efficient operations, the water treatment plant might need a specific flow rate. The head loss of the water flowing through the pipes and the head added by pumps determine the flow rate of the media throughout the system.