Water on line

         Water digitalized analytically

Advanced analytics on data from online sensing can help to stabilize operations and increase capacity in water-treatment facilities. Let us await for the best.      Digital tools can optimize water-management operations—offering stability, reduced costs, and deferred expenditures for new capacity.

Central to sustainable operations is water reuse, wherein water is reclaimed after processing and treatment (to remove metals, reagents, or suspended solids). Reuse obviates the need for additional fresh water; it significantly reduces water-operating expenses and is critical to addressing low water availability in stressed areas. Anglo-American, for instance, has pledged to adopt techniques that will allow for more than 80 percent water reuse at their mining facilities, saving an estimated $15 million per year.

      Water treatment ensures that reclaimed water is comparable with fresh water and can be used in processing or discharged into an aquatic environment. Many industrial and municipal-wastewater companies use reactor-clarifier facilities for treatment because of their reduced cost relative to membrane-based technologies. In these facilities, water is treated in one or more reactors to induce sedimentation; the sediment is subsequently collected in large basins (clarifiers), yielding a top layer of clear water. Although effective, these systems are prone to upsets—commonly triggered by changes in flow, pH, or nutrient concentration---which can require slowdowns or sometimes even shutdowns to remedy.

        Online (IT/OT) sensors and valves—for flow, density, and turbidity—can help avoid upset conditions by enabling dynamic operation. Often, these components are combined into logical blocks within an automation system, allowing operators to choose set points that can be maintained without constant oversight. However, automation is minimal in many facilities, and control is relegated to watchful operators. When automation does exist, it is often built on influent- (incoming), effluent- (outgoing), and reagent-flow measurements, which may suffice to maintain steady-state operation. 

     Extending automation routines to incorporate changes in constituent or nutrient concentration can optimize plant performance and ensure proper stoichiometric ratios with reagents and sufficient settling time in the clarifier. Analyses for mass flux, mass balance, and kinetic rates have been published, but they require data that are often manually measured, such as the sediment-settling rate. Hence, these analyses are applied sparingly, often during the design phase or start-up.

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