Small scale tests can make a big difference

On-site laboratory testing allows you to test a process on your wastewater treatment plant to assess the impact before replicating it in practice. Conducting small scale lab tests can be helpful to optimise and manage dosing, the effectiveness of different chemicals, and monitor biomass health/viability. We’ve shared two examples of how conducting these types of test has helped us save customers money over the last year:

Helping a large distillery make savings during its winter shutdown period

Anaerobic Digestion is a biological process and can therefore be sensitive to changes. For this reason, some food and beverage manufacturing plants opt to buy-in food stock during shutdown periods to prevent a decline in biomass health throughout the shutdown period. Alpheus’s expertise gives our Distillery client in the Scottish Highlands the confidence to hibernate their digester, rather than purchase food stock to keep it running during the distillery shut-down period. This has been delivering savings since 2020 after we planned and managed an extended shutdown during lockdown. Every year, over the Christmas break Alpheus hibernates the reactor and monitors biomass health closely throughout the hibernation in the lab using a variety of tests – including a small-scale replica of the reactor. For more information on how the process works, read our Anaerobic Digester Hibernation Case Study on our website.

During the shut-down period, our on-site team aren’t hibernating, we use this time to deliver proactive maintenance across the site while it is quiet!

Helping a large plant-based food manufacturer to recover severely fouled membranes

Our client approached us as they were experiencing severe performance issues at their wastewater treatment plant. Poor maintenance and ineffective cleaning-in-place had led to severe fouling of the membranes, so one of our key activities as part of the plant recovery, was to recover the membranes. We used jar testing in this scenario to test for the most effective cleaning chemical to use to dissolve and clear the blockages. This ensured that the cleaning process was as efficient and cost-effective as possible as it demonstrated how the chemical would perform on a larger scale. Of course, the membrane recovery was just one part of the process Alpheus took to improve performance across the site – read our case study on how we addressed the issues this plant-based food manufacturer was experiencing and optimised the performance of the plant.

Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) Optimisation

Dissolved air flotation (DAF) is a process that clarifies wastewater by removing suspended matter such as oil or solids by chemically inducing coagulation/flocculation and floating the solids with microbubbles of air created by the release of dissolved air under pressure. Jar testing is commonly used to optimise DAF performance by ensuring optimal dosing of the chemistry to maximise separation. Jar testing allows us to test chemistry to establish the most successful dose rate. Once the optimum dose rate is identified it is used on the DAF. You can see an example of this in the image below, where the fourth jar shows the most effective chemistry.

Visit alpheus.co.uk for more information about Alpheus Operations and Maintenance services and how we can help optimise water and wastewater treatment plant performance.