Key Challenges of Monitoring in Wastewater Treatment

Publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) collect wastewater from municipal, commercial and industrial facilities, transport it through a series of contributor pipes, known as a collection system, and deliver it to the treatment plant.

Regulations prohibit these facilities from discharging flammable or explosive wastes from their processes into the liquid collection system. In addition to fire and explosion hazards, these wastes can affect the efficient and effective operation of the treatment facility. 

The only certain way to guard against these hazards is to continuously monitor for flammable gases and vapors.

The harsh environment of the waste stream presents 3 key challenges for most gas monitoring systems:

1. High moisture and humidity can promote corrosion, contamination and clogging that can lead to unreliable readings.
2. Poisons and corrosive materials present in the waste stream reduce sensitivity and render many combustible gas sensors inactive.
3. Most monitoring systems are calibrated to measure one specific substance and must be recalibrated when exposed to another. In wastewater applications there may be more than one solvent or unknown solvents so it is necessary to measure the concentration of all flammable gases and vapors in the waste stream atmosphere.

Continuous sampling under these conditions demand an analyzer with distinct design features, like our PrevEx for the stream and SmartMaxII for the plant.

Over the next couple weeks let's break down these unique issues and how to find the right gas monitoring system to help solve them.