Efficiency vs. Clarity within Wastewater Pretreatment
Industrial wastewater treatment plants play a significant role in preserving the environment, protecting public health and the ecosystem, while also dealing with the dirty water produced by their manufacturing facility. Industrial wastewater treatment facilities are designed to help speed up the natural process of water purification and do so in a way that maintains compliance, meets stringent regulatory standards and sustains environmentally conscious pretreatment standards. While maintaining compliance should be your overarching goal for your wastewater treatment facility, it’s important that your facility maintains operational efficiency to increase revenue, reduce costs and avoid wasting materials.
In this article, we discuss how your wastewater pretreatment plant can achieve efficiency and increase ROI by optimizing your chemical treatment program.
Maintaining Compliance and Efficiency During Pretreatment
During the pretreatment process, harmful pollutants are removed before being discharged to a publicly owned treatment works (POTW). Under the Clean Water Act (CWA), regulatory agencies, like the local POTW regulates the specific discharge limits and pretreatment standards of the wastewater. These limits can be broken down into three types of pretreatment standards: general and specific prohibitions, categorical pretreatment standards and local limits. The primary objective for wastewater treatment facilities is to ensure that discharged water meets these regulatory standards set by the EPA and POTW and is within a permissible level to be discharged to the POTW. Although there are many requirements a plant must meet during the pretreatment process, plants are not required to make their effluent crystal clear.
Excessive Clarification Can Be Detrimental to Operational Efficiency
Often, operators strive to meet the highest quality standards and in doing so, go beyond what is required by the discharge permit, however, this may be detrimental to your plant’s overall operational efficiency. Discharge permit regulations are designed to ensure your discharge will not adversely impact the POTW and may not necessarily require you to produce wastewater to drinking water quality. Instead, when plants follow the set of regulatory standards, or permit requirements they can operate optimally, without sacrificing their bottom line or environmental ethics. Remember, your permit dictates the quality of your wastewater.
Here’s how:
Cut Chemical Costs
Operating an industrial wastewater treatment facility is expensive. Every wastewater treatment facility is looking to reduce operational costs while maintaining operational efficiencies. Plants can reduce operational costs by reducing chemical output daily. If the amount of chemicals can be reduced by a wastewater treatment facility while maintaining adequate process treatment results, money is saved, and ROI will increase.
Conduct Wastewater Treatment Analysis
If your plant has been tasked with becoming more efficient and increasing overall ROI, you may need to conduct a wastewater treatment analysis to streamline chemicals you have in your process rotation and work to reduce overall chemical costs. The experienced engineers and operators at Operators Unlimited are qualified to assist customers throughout every step of the pretreatment process, from optimization of the chemical process to custom development of chemical blends to achieve permit requirements more efficiently. What begins with a chemical assessment and analysis, frequently ends with a still compliant effluent, but with costs reductions and increased efficiency.
OU Is Here to Meet the Needs of Industrial Wastewater Treatment
Operators Unlimited understands the challenges in wastewater treatment. We also understand how to implement the tools and resources necessary to help our clients get wastewater discharged to POTWs in a streamlined process, tailored to fit your wastewater treatment plant and manage goals. After all, we understand that no two plants are alike. Whatever your chemistry and efficiency needs, OU has the solution to help your plant maintain compliance, efficiency and clarity. Contact us to survey your wastewater plant and help develop an efficient solution.
