To reduce their carbon footprint, the water and wastewater industry must take a critical look at energy consumption and how efficiently resources – including water – are being managed within their facilities. Ultrasonic flow meters are a valuable tool for water utilities in their water management efforts.

The Birmingham Wastewater Treatment plant in Kansas City, Missouri is an activated sludge treatment facility that processes 12.4 million gallons of wastewater a day. The facility processes and receives 21,000 dry tons of sludge each year, which is pumped to sludge holding basins. For the last few years, the facility, in partnership with the city, has participated in an innovative recycling project and sludge has played a major role. Its use as fertilizer on land adjacent to the treatment plant has begun to convert the area into forest. It appears to be an environmentally sound, cost effective solution to sludge disposal.

Among the pump stations managed by Branford, CT, is a long-term problematic station located at Burban Street. There were two primary problems at this station: 1) clogging from modern day trash and raggy, stringy materials, and 2) fats, oils, and grease (FOG) from a nearby nursing home and restaurants, which accumulate and float on the water surface, resulting in a horrendous mess.

By providing valuable data and insights, pilot tests enable facilities to make informed decisions, optimize their operations, and mitigate risks associated with new technologies.

With all the potential debris running through wastewater collection systems — including higher concentrations of “flushable” wipes than ever — the debate over chopping them to bits, or not, has become a fundamental question for wastewater utilities. Now, new perspectives and new mechanisms are giving wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operators new opportunities for cutting the wipes problem down to size.

The City of Rushville, Indiana had to remedy a consent order filed in 2007 for its untreated combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharges that were polluting the Flatrock River, a violation of the Clean Water Act. The city originally planned to install a 1 MGD stormwater storage tank, but was approached by Aqua-Aerobic representatives with a pilot test proposal utilizing a new technology.

While point level measuring approaches are regarded as simple and user friendly, they lack the capabilities of more sophisticated continuous measuring instruments.

Learn why a WWTP recently decided to progressively replace the old surface aerators in the biological basins by optimally-adapted equipment.

Inland Empire Paper Company (IEP), located in Millwood, WA specializes in the production of newsprint paper using a combination of mechanical pulp and recycled newspaper pulp. IEP produces an average of 525 tons per day of newsprint and specialty paper products in 20 to 40 pound weight paper. 

Jet aeration delivers decades-long service life with corrosion-resistant materials, clog-resistant design, and simplified maintenance—eliminating basin outages and reducing lifecycle costs compared to fine-bubble diffusers.

Excess ammonia in receiving waters causes algal blooms that decrease oxygen levels. For this reason, many wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) must limit ammonia in discharge. Mike Rousey, Hach Company

One of the most important measurements in the determination of the health of a body of water is its dissolved oxygen content. The quantity of dissolved oxygen in water is normally expressed in parts per million (ppm) by weight and is due to the solubility of oxygen from the atmosphere around us.

Limits of Detection and Quantitation are key to understanding analytical instrumentation capabilities, especially when non-optimal process control can lead to damage of sensitive equipment due to insufficiently accurate readings.

Different flow meter technologies were used in this geothermal power plant to monitor and measure brine. However, these traditional technologies failed. That’s where Panametrics PT900 Portable Ultrasonic Flowmeter was able to help.

As old gas & oil fields play out, newer methods must be used to extract resources from areas where they are locked in layers of shale. One current technique is known as “fraccing,” in which high pressure water is pumped into the well shaft to “fracture” the rock layers, allowing more natural gas to escape and be collected. However, this technique poses a number of environmental problems, including contamination of water with hydrocarbons, solid particulates, and scale producing ions — making it unsuitable for reuse.

Any process plant constantly generates a high volume of status data. Today, this data can be extracted from the plant, stored, analyzed, and prepared to meet operator needs and lower marginal costs.

Automated scraper strainers pre-filter water and wastewater to protect fragile membrane systems from damage caused by large, suspended particles, reducing maintenance and replacement costs.

Many are turning to UV as an effective barrier to enable the reuse of wastewater, for indirect reuse, and aquifer recharge.

A water purveyor was in urgent need of a chemically resistant flow instrumentation with a long life of service that allowed reliable and long-term stable dosing of the sodium hypochlorite solution.

QuEChERS is a Quick-Easy-Cheap-Effective-Rugged-Safe extraction method that has been developed for the determination of pesticide residues in agricultural commodities.