When I first came to Trihedral, I was surprised to learn that voice modems were still widely used in the HMI and SCADA industries. Though the days of wedging your phone receiver into a foam cradle are long gone, the name still conjures up the sounds of chirps, bleeps, and bongs they make as they translate analog information into digital. As high-speed networks became our preferred method of web surfing, the use of this technology has steeply declined.
In recent years, the debate about which technology is best suited for level monitoring and open channel monitoring (OCM) applications has taken some traction. There are those who argue that ultrasonic level technology has been uncontested as the standard for level and OCM applications in the water industry. The counter-argument is that radar technology is more effective because it is more robust and accurate than ultrasonic technology.
The City of Eden Prairie, Minnesota recently updated its data management processes at the water treatment plant, with a goal of increased efficiency for everyone from operators to management. The Eden Prairie Water Treatment Plant draws from a groundwater supply to serve a population of 63,000 people, with a total of 18,000 water user connections. The plant primarily uses lime softening for treatment.
The Villoresi Channel, located north of Milan, was designed with the main purpose of agricultural irrigation while providing water to the city of Milan. The paths running along the canal were also used for recreational purposes and cross through some of the most beautiful natural parks in Lombardy.
The Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority (YCUA) employs a total of 30 mixers in its aeration tanks as part of an anoxic nutrient removal process, and the mixers were failing. The mixers were old, inefficient, and starting to fail, so YCUA elected to replace them with Flygt 4320 mixers. Read the full case study to learn how the potential energy savings for YCUA could easily approach $1 million over a decade.
Enhancing process reliability and increasing capacity are common issues facing water municipalities. On the one hand, community demographics are constantly evolving and water municipalities need to accommodate the impact to capacity requirements. At the same time, older systems that support pumping operations are not getting any younger and as control systems age, for example, it can become more time consuming to maintain equipment and more difficult to find replacement parts after systems have been in place for many years.
Achieving consistent water pressure is a challenge for geographical areas that have grown faster than the development of infrastructures to accommodate water demand and for businesses such as fast food restaurants and strip malls.
To ensure real-time monitoring of pump motor status at its five lift pumping stations, Sheboygan Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility, Sheboygan, WI, replaced its bi-metallic overload relays with Eaton’s Motor Insight™ overload and monitoring relays.
A key driver of economic development is the availability of water and wastewater services. For the Town and Village of Champlain, NY, this is no exception. To capitalize on the region’s economic potential and make more land available for new businesses, the Town and Village of Champlain are working together on the Shared Water Project, a major water system upgrade that includes installing 44,000 feet of AMERICAN ductile iron pipe.
With a population of about 15,000, Steinbach is the third largest city in Manitoba and one of the fastest growing areas in Canada. The current system has been operating since 1993, an eternity in the world of technology. Because the wastewater department was already familiar with operating the existing Xylem/Flygt M&C SCADA system with Aquaview software and APP controllers, they decided to inquire what new technologies the company could offer. Read the full case study to learn more.
In 2012 when Superstorm Sandy hit the New Jersey coastline, it devastated Route 35, a critical flood evacuation route, just north of Island Beach State Park. With this critical coastal evacuation route severely compromised, the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) took immediate steps to restore safe travel.
Fox Thermal Flow Meters use a constant temperature differential (constant Δ T) technology to measure mass flow rate of air and gases.
Dosing of the precipitant was adjusted manually based on the laboratory measurement value of the daily composite sample and so was unable to respond to possible peaks. Although being compliant with the effluent limits, the values observed fluctuate between 0.2 and 0.8 mg/L.
Hach LDO® technology improves the efficiency of pharmaceutical plant’s wastewater treatment process, helping to protect the environment and the community.
Levels of phosphorus, a chemical element that promotes organic growth, must be controlled in wastewater coming from beverage, food and dairy processing plants. Failure to control phosphorus accurately has a negative impact on water quality and can lead to large fines.
Compliance and consistent high quality are two of the key goals within the beverage industry. Hach® provides support for these goals through comprehensive analyses of water and beer.
There are several basic methods for reducing harmonic voltage and current distortion from nonlinear distribution loads such as adjustable frequency drives (AFDs). Following is a description of each method, along with each method’s advantages and disadvantages.
Organic carbon compounds vary greatly. In fact, one of the first lessons in most introductory Organic Chemistry courses explains that the number of possible carbon compounds is virtually infinite due to carbon’s ability to form long, chain-like molecules. While chromatographic methods like gas chromatography (GC) or high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) are able to make quantitative determinations for specific compounds, the user must first know which specific compounds to look for.
In the early days of variable frequency drive (VFD) technology, the typical application was in process control for manufacturing synthetic fiber, steel bars, and aluminum foil.
The C445 motor management relay offers the most configurable protection options in the industry, with features specifically designed to protect critical pumps from costly damages due to dead-head and other underloaded or starved pump conditions.
Energy costs continue to increase. At the same time, there is increased pressure to reduce utility bills without sacrificing operations or comfort.
Mueller Co. recently announced a new H-306HP fabricated steel tapping sleeve. Designed for hot tapping ductile iron pipe and thick-wall C900 plastic pipe, the H-306HP is made from A36 fabricated steel and meets the requirements of AWWA C223. It features an integral bolt flange, Rilsan nylon coating, working pressures up to 300psi, and is available sizes from 4”-16”. The H-306HP is an economical tapping sleeve ideally suited for use with Mueller® CL-12, C1-36, and Mega-Lite drilling machines in less corrosive soil environments.
From the experts in chlorine management comes a multi-parameter water analysis system offering both chlorine measurement and control in one versatile instrument. Tailor the modular MicroChem®3 to your individual application with up to three measurement parameters. Designed with extensive customer input, the easy and innovative system includes an intuitive touchscreen display, menu-driven software to easily guide users through set-up and operation, and a USB interface for software updates and data log downloads.
The GDT™ Degas Separator is a patented centrifugal vortex unit that separates entrained and stripped gases from liquid (water) based on the density difference between the gas and liquid. Its unique compact design quickly and effectively separates unwanted entrained gases — such as ozone, chlorine, or methane — and requires far less space than traditional gas separators. It enables gas separation with pressure differentials of 5% or lower and at varible flows. The self-cleaning design significantly reduces maintenance and downtime, and it includes no moving parts that can wear out, break down, or require service.
The Swan AMI DIST series offers three options for measuring chlorine, pH, conductivity and Turbidity on one easy to install, easy to maintain panel.
PowerXL enclosed drives is a Next Generation enclosed drives platform that packages Eaton’s PowerXL DG1 drive into a new and innovative solution. A common assembly design used across 9 million pre-engineered standard configurations delivers an easy-to-use product with industry best lead times. Add in the flexibility of custom engineered configurations and the reliability of a UL 508C design and an ISO 9001 manufacturing process, you get the most versatile, fast and reliable product on the market.
Moving water and controlling water systems is no easy task. There are many variables involved with fluid dynamics, the addition of environmental, harmonics and energy cost concerns make system control even more difficult. Eaton understands these problems and provides enclosed drives solutions for water/wastewater. From NEMA 4X enclosures to our Active Energy Control algorithm and five-year warranty, Eaton provides a complete solution for water/wastewater applications.
An ambitious, globe-trotting program invites attendees to learn from the infrastructure accomplishments and challenges of the world’s premier riverfront cities. With water becoming an increasingly valuable resource and the world’s drinking and wastewater infrastructure in peril, what can these metropolises teach us?
The journey to “smart” has proven more challenging for wastewater networks than for potable water, but real-world impact is imminent. Learn what potential awaits the industry at monitoring’s latest frontier.
A smart-water expert details the impact of data and analytics on the water sector.
The LoRa Alliance is a non-profit association of members who are collaborating together to drive the adoption of a communication protocol that offers long range, long battery life and open architecture. For water utilities specifically, the LoRa wide area network (WAN) would allow devices from multiple manufacturers to be able to communicate with each other across long distances.
Is "smart water" living up to the hype? Can there be true impact without broad implementation? Even when technologies are in place, are utilities using smart water capabilities to their fullest extent? Water Online hosted Reese Tisdale, president of Bluefield Research, to answer these tough questions.
Big Data is often characterized by the large volume of data, the wide variety of data types and the velocity at which the data must be processed. Data can come from many different sources, such as social media use, online purchases, licensed twitter data streams or sensors used in the Internet of Things (IoT).
From the experts in chlorine management comes a multi-parameter water analysis system offering both chlorine measurement and control in one versatile instrument. Tailor the modular MicroChem®3 to your individual application with up to three measurement parameters. Watch the video to learn more.
The Power Systems Experience Center (PSEC) is a safe, controlled environment where you can participate in training and observe testing and product demonstrations first hand.
In this video we explore the best way to protect your pump from the damaging effects of a dead head or other under loaded conditions like a starved or dry pump. Watch this video to learn how to prevent your pump from dead head with the C445.
George Hawkins, CEO and General Manager of DC Water, talks with Lisa Cox, manager at Sorenson Impact Center, about the first green bond in the US and how DC Water — partnered with Goldman Sachs — catalyzed innovation, social change, and sustainability in DC's water management system.
A key component of the water supply plan for the City of Wichita, Kansas, was recharging the large aquifer that lies under the region with water from the Little Arkansas River. The river basin contains substantial farming operations which, during rain events, spike the river water with the commonly used herbicide Atrazine. Atrazine concentrations in the river frequently rose forcing the city to shutdown the bank filtration system. Advanced oxidation process (AOP) was selected to remove the herbicide. The AOP reactor’s design limited the amount of hydraulic backpressure it could tolerate. Consequently, Mazzei was challenged by the project’s design team to remove the entrained gas bubbles that remained from the prior oxidation treatment at a “not to exceed” hydrostatic backpressure of 19 feet.
