With six different Polychem fiberglass flight scraper profiles to choose from, Brentwood offers more flight options than any other chain and flight manufacturer. All Polychem flights feature a flat-face design to minimize recirculation of solids and are fabricated from isophthalic polyester resin. They offer flexible solutions to accommodate tank wall variations and can be supplied pre-drilled and notched to account for chain center lines and floor and return rail wear strip locations.

Lamella, or lamellae, is a term frequently used when discussing sedimentation and clarifier design. Lamella clarifiers can be used in applications ranging from municipal water and wastewater treatment to various industrial applications. The primary benefit of utilizing lamella clarifiers over conventional clarifiers is reduced footprint. However, the term “lamella” is often used too broadly in the industry without clear intention.

What should you consider when planning to replace the flights in your rectangular clarifier? Flights are also known as scrapers, c-channels, flight boards, drag flights, and sludge pushers. Regardless of what you call them, they serve the same purpose. Flights convey settled solids to a hopper or collection pit and push surface debris into a scum removal device in a straight-line clarifier system. Although flights may all seem the same at first glance, there are some key characteristics to think about when evaluating which type you may need for your chain and scraper system.

Although both types of lamella sedimentation equipment operate on the same principles of solids settling, there are several notable differences between them. 

Read on to learn how, utilizing its pilot reactor, Brentwood helped a mid-sized suburban community assess potential treatment of ammonia in the city’s potable water source.

Due to limited clearance and accessibility, effective removal of settled sludge beneath tube settlers has long been a challenge for plant owners and design engineers. They needed a sludge removal solution with a low-profile design that would offer flexibility during operation and maintenance.

Trickling filters have proven to efficiently remove pollutants from wastewater since their inception, earning recognition as a technology that will continue to serve the industry well into the future.

There is a common misconception that all sprockets are the same, simply because they have the same number of teeth and run on 720-series chain. There are a number of other features that distinguish between a long-lasting, wear-resistant gear and a sprocket that needs to be replaced after a few years due to wear or failure.

Tube settlers use multiple tubular channels, which are adjacent to each other and sloped at nominal 60˚ angles, to form an increased effective settling area. This configuration allows for a shorter particle setting depth, and as the tube settler channels collect solids, they form a compact mass that promotes the solids to slide down the channel. Tube settlers are an inexpensive method of upgrading existing clarifiers and sedimentation basins by allowing increased flow rate and/or improved performance. They can also reduce the footprint of new clarifier construction.

As winter approaches and cold weather sets in, both the air and wastewater temperatures of your trickling filter can drop to the single digit area, so we want to bundle it up to prevent it from catching a “cold.” It is critical to preserve heat within the filter so the bugs are happy, healthy, and keep working hard to clean up the wastewater that humans produce. Here are a few measures you can take to keep the bugs happy and your trickling filter efficient:

Designing an underground stormwater storage system is a unique step in the overall construction process for each site. The size of the inlets and the conveyance pipes are determined by flow rate, elevation, and slope. This information is entered and calculated by stormwater management software to determine the drainage calculation. But many of the measures build upon one another or vary based on different criteria, so it can be a pretty complex process. That’s why we’re going to take a look at the top 10 factors that go into designing and installing one of these systems.

There is a common misconception about tube settlers that thicker material, whether it’s thermoformed or extruded, yields a stronger, more structurally capable module. On the surface, this seems like a reasonable assumption. However, when we look at the details of module design and construction, we see that this is not always true.

Brentwood is committed to delivering high-quality products and services to our customers and the water industry. For this reason, we have invested, and continue to invest, in ensuring our products are certified to the NSF/ANSI Standard 61 for water treatment and distribution applications.

The vast majority of chain and flight collectors in operation throughout the world do not have any form of monitoring system installed to protect against operational failure. Traditional safety devices consist of a shear pin sprocket device, with a limit switch, designed to protect the drive system if a load or torque exceeds the working load of the drive chain; in the event that this occurs, the shear pin will break, the limit switch will be activated, and the drive motor is shut down. This process will typically protect the drive chain and drive motor from failure. When the shear pin breaks, the clarifier is drained, the cause of the overload is established and corrected, a new shear pin is installed, and the collector is placed back in operation.

Both rectangular and circular configurations have been commonly used in clarifier basins. The relative merits of the two have been discussed at length for decades. Historically, the selection of rectangular versus circular clarifiers has been based on past experience and the preference of the design engineer or design company.

Aqua America water treatment plant in Tiffin, Ohio, was built in the 1920s and is situated on the Sandusky River. The plant processes 3.4 million gallons per day and was facing challenges of producing high-quality drinking water. A full measure of seasonal variety, combined with the runoff from a thriving agricultural environment, caused the small-town water facility to constantly encounter adverse conditions. In an effort to remain compliant, Aqua America enhanced coagulation, but this increased sedimentation rates and exacerbated sludge blanket depths.

When the Coldwater Board of Public Utilities in Coldwater, Michigan abruptly received new ammonia permit limits in August of 2007, they hired consultants to help guide them to the best solution for their new problem. With a full‐measure of influent waste variety consisting of residential, commercial, industrial and septage and a new seasonal permit limit of 2mg/L, Coldwater hoped for a budget friendly solution to consistently perform through peak flows and industrial shockloading.

Changing environmental conditions and increased regulatory oversight have combined to make discharge one of the most pressing concerns for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) today. While many plants have found that they need to step up their treatment game to keep up, it can be a challenge to find improvements that are effective and efficient.

The Bissell Point Wastewater Treatment Plant is the largest wastewater treatment facility in Missouri with an average flow rate of 123 MGD. In the mid-1980s, the facility expanded to provide secondary treatment. The goal of the upgrade was to select a reliable process that would achieve high-rate BOD removal.

In August of 2007, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issued seasonal ammonia discharge limits for the Coldwater Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), which included a daily maximum ammonia concentration of 2.0 mg/L between the months of May and November.

Once the sludge has settled, what’s the most efficient way to remove it? John Stevenson, Product Line Director at Brentwood offers insight and solutions to common sludge-removal problems in this Q&A with Water Online.

Outside of the collector chain, flight scrapers are typically the least inspected, yet critical, member of any chain and flight system. In this episode of Brentwood’s Polychem Solutions Maintenance Series, we walk you through some concerns to be mindful of and provide basic inspection measures to keep your clarifier running smoothly.

Chain: the heart of any collector system. In this episode of Brentwood’s Polychem Solutions Maintenance Series, we review some basic chain inspection techniques and advise you on how to inspect your chain to ensure it's not near its breaking point.

Brentwood tube settlers integrate with our SedVac sediment dredge system to provide comprehensive clarification solutions. This animation illustrates the process of sediment moving through the tube settler system and falling to the floor below where SedVac vacuums up the fallen sludge and grit.

Learn how all the components in a standard Polychem system are assembled and installed.

Brentwood’s Polychem ChainCheck, the latest evolution of our SmartGuard Collector Monitoring System, monitors pin and flight alignment and counts system cycles for component replacement without the use of mechanical sensors.

Brentwood’s Polychem TrueSpan head shaft is a field adjustable head shaft with the adaptability to fit a wide range of tank sizes. Featuring a design that reduces upfront engineering and lead time, TrueSpan was truly designed with flexibility in mind.

Brentwood’s Polychem NCS-720-S series collector chain with added H2S protection is chain’s strongest defense against sulfuric acid. Made with 100% non-acetal chain. H2S chain works to prevent clip erosion from sulfuric acid found in covered primary clarifier tanks.

Trickling filters have been effectively removing pollutants from wastewater for over one hundred years. Learn more about how this technology has evolved since its inception, and how it became a part of the South Monmouth Regional Sewerage Authority's secondary treatment process.

The Brentwood Water & Wastewater team often receives questions about how to properly align, or nest, tube settler modules for installation. Check out these tips for ensuring your tube settlers are correctly nested and ready for use.

Check out some key design features of Brentwood tube settlers that allow modules to maintain tensile, flexural, and impact strength with minimal support.

This video was developed to aid in the assembly of a Brentwood Tube Settler Module. Visit our website if you have questions or would like to learn more about other Brentwood water & wastewater products.

Polychem non-metallic chain and flight systems are comprised of the finest quality components available in today's market. Reliably constructed and economically designed, these products function efficiently as part of any clarifier system. Learn how they are assembled and installed in the tank by watching this animation.

Brentwood customers often ask if our media can be cut to fit their design and how this should be done. Yes, it can be cut, and believe it or not, an easy solution is to use a chainsaw! Simply mark where you want to cut the media and make cuts on each side.

The Brentwood-engineered AccuFAS Submerged Fixed-Film system adds a fixed-growth surface for biomass to provide enhanced biological treatment and increase capacity for municipal and industrial wastewater. Composed of Brentwood’s structured-sheet, fixed-film media, AccuFAS was developed to optimize airflow and mixing while maximizing contact between the waste stream and biomass.

Brentwood’s SedVac Sediment Removal System can be used across a wide range of sludge removal applications because of its ability to remove the compression zone layer of settled solids that traditional pipe systems leave behind. SedVac’s unique design funnels the sludge and scrapes the floor, resulting in consistent solids removal of 3 percent concentration without wasting water or clogging.