Water treatment plants are built to have a long lifespan, and they must deliver consistent performance throughout their service life. A slip in the efficiency of the water treatment plant could have serious consequences for a business. It would increase the plant operating costs and could pose problems in adhering to water quality regulations. Further, it could pollute the surrounding environment.
Studies suggest that increasing levels of treatment and maintenance can cause a water treatment plant’s operational costs to rise by 30%-40% in 20 years.
A few simple measures to optimize the efficiency of your treatment plant early on could help save considerable operational costs in the long run.
Consider these 5 measures to optimize your water treatment plant efficiency.
Upgrade the pumps
Pumps associated with the water treatment system consume a significant amount of energy. Many older pumps operate at a single speed, and on/off cycling. However, newer pumps offer motor/drive/pump combinations that can take a wide range of flows. If your pumps are from an older generation, upgrading to new pumps could ensure more efficient operations, and reduced maintenance as well as operational costs.
VFD drives can also be added to the pump setup to match pump speed to the flow rate. This can further reduce the energy needs of your business.
Optimize aeration
The aeration system in water treatment plants consumes around 50% of annual electricity usage by the plant. Upgrade the air distribution systems, blowers, and VFDs to optimize aeration. Additionally, you could install the dissolved oxygen control system to further reduce the blower’s power consumption. If you have old and ageing blowers and diffuser systems, replacing them with newer versions would improve the oxygen transfer efficiency and reduce the quantity of air required for treatment.
Optimizing aeration could mean a better and faster process using a lesser amount of air.
Ease the disinfection process
A disinfection process that uses chlorine and dechlorination chemicals is expensive, energy-intensive, and hazardous. Instead, using ultraviolet light is a better alternative. The UV system is far safer and uses far lesser energy than the chemical system.
Using a UV system instead of chlorine and dechlorination chemicals is safer and more cost-effective.
Take more advantage of gravity
Gravity can make a considerable difference to how a wastewater treatment plant transports the flow. An assessment of the plant’s structure and performance should let you identify places where gravity could be used to transport the waster instead of electric motors.
Implement better monitoring
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.
Self-assessment is an important tool to identify gaps in the performance and water treatment plant and identify measures to plug these gaps.
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