Water and Sewage Treatment: Expertise Unlimited

I'm finishing the materials to be used in my anaerobic digestion course for Loughborough today, and preparing for a visit to Nottingham next week to see their first-years in action in a field experiment.

I've upgraded my teaching course to an MA, as there is little point in doing initial teacher training to teach in Higher Education. We learn as we go...

I got some interesting results from the laboratory trial of various coagulants for the pharmaceutical effluent treatment plant. Note floating sludge and reduced clarity in left-hand cylinder.

The best coagulant tested is around 1/10 the price of what is being used at the moment. It works better in the lab, but experience tells me that until we trial it on the plant, no firm conclusions can be drawn.

There is an added complication that the client has signed up for a long-term contract with a chemical supplier, so unless they can provide an equivalent product, there will be some serious contractual wrangling to be done. Rather them than me!