All the wastewater treatment plants in India together treat only one-third of the country’s total sewage water. What’s more, around 70% of all wastewater treatment plants in India are dysfunctional.
Wastewater treatment plants are critical to improving the quality and availability of water. However, to offer reliable performance, a plant must be properly designed, installed, and maintained. There have been instances where wastewater treatment plants are set up to comply with norms but are rarely operated. In many cases, budget constraints lead establishments to compromise the design and installation of the wastewater treatment plant. The improper design then compromises the plant’s treatment capacity and performance quality.
Here are 4 key mistakes to avoid in wastewater treatment plants
Miscalculating the flow rate
Many times, industrial establishments opt to make educated estimates of what flow rate is suitable for their wastewater treatment plant. However, if the flow rate isn’t correctly specified, the plant may be unable to handle the variations in the flow rate. As a result, the turbid water flows ahead into the internal parts of the plant, plugging the downstream filers.
Wastewater treatment plants should be designed to accommodate access flow and enabled with buffering/holding capacity. The holding tanks can be used to tackle additional wastewater that could be generated during surges in production. Additionally, the chemical feed systems should be enabled with variable flow controls. That way, chemical feeds can be increased or decreased as per changes in the flow rate. Manual control of chemical feeds is rather difficult, and this task should ideally be automated to ensure precise variation in the feeds as per change in flow rate.
Inovar specializes in designing customized automated wastewater treatment plants for a wide range of applications.
Lack of proper monitoring of the wastewater treatment plant
Wastewater treatment plants are typically designed to operate for many decades. This means that while developments such as digital technologies are rapidly changing wastewater treatment mechanisms, many older plants continue to operate with manual systems. In such circumstances, monitoring vital parameters such as water quality, state of the equipment etc becomes difficult. In many cases, there are new and excellent systems that work flawlessly, and hence, are not strictly monitored. However, detailed monitoring of the wastewater treatment plant is vital.
Proper monitoring of the plant can help address the gaps in efficiency. Additionally, data generated by digital monitoring systems can help improve plant performance. Benchmarking can help you set and achieve key performance targets. Using the data about the past performance of your plant, you could learn historical trends, determine the baseline performance for a particular day, and quantify the relative performance to plan for the future.
Digitally generated monitoring data is an important tool to identify gaps in the performance and water treatment plant and identify measures to plug these gaps.
Not upgrading the water treatment plant
Drawing from the previous point, many older wastewater treatment platns continue to be in operation. In many cases, if the plant is operating without any hassle, it is not updated. However, with time, environmental regulations and water quality requirements are becoming more stringent, and the efficiency of older plants continues to decline. Similarly, as the plant gets older, its maintenance, as well as operating costs, can steadily increase.
Even so, new water treatment technologies often entail a high initial investment and budget constraints might make it difficult to set up an entirely new wastewater treatment plant. In such cases, companies can opt to retrofit the existing plant with new technology.
Know the 4 reasons to retrofit your wastewater treatment plant
Not considering changes in the characteristics of water
Wastewater treatment plants are designed considering the characteristics of process water. However, it is important to note that the proportion of contaminants in raw water might keep changing due to seasonal variations or changes in the production process.
To take an example: the amount of iron and silica in raw water changes seasonally. However, if the clarifiers are not designed for proper retention when the load increases, or if the feed systems are not equipped to tackle the increased load, these contaminants will be carried over downstream, leading to scaling and fouling of equipment. They can also result in the failure of certain parts of the sludge handling system. Thus, it is important that seasonal and other changes in the chemical makeup of water must be taken into account while designing the wastewater treatment plant.
Inovar works closely with the customer to conduct feasibility studies, and understand the application requirements. These studies are then translated into the design and manufacturing of a reliable and durable wastewater treatment plant suited for the client’s specific needs.
Conclusion
At a time when water quality and environmental norms are continuously evolving to become more stringent, it is vital to have a wastewater treatment plant that is up-to-date, efficient, and functioning without issues. Failure of the plant due to human or machine errors could mean financial loss, downtime, and environmental hazards.
At Inovar, we ensure that your wastewater treatment plant is designed and setu up as per your specific needs, and offers a reliable performance over long term. We carry end-to-end responsibility for designing, manufacturing, and installing new water treatment plants, and provide consultancy and installation services to retrofit existing plants.
Annual maintenance contracts with Inovar ensure additional savings in maintenance costs and ensure that your wastewater treatment plants offer consistent performance over a long time span.
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