Water and Sewage Treatment: Expertise Unlimited

We have added some new content to the website, in the form of a collection of recent publications:
some book reviews, a water feature design manual, an article on packaged waste water treatment plant problems, and a literature review on PCB water treatment technologies.

Things are proceeding well in other areas, getting ready for the pharma. plant upgrade in November, and picking up a few new clients.

Labels: book, design, effluent, feature, literature, manual, package, PCB, pharmaceutical, plant, review, treatment, waste, water

So it turned out that the heating and aeration of the oily sludges as part of the test for aerobic degradation broke the emulsion, where all other attempts had failed. Investigations continue.

I got an interesting email from South Africa this week, prompted by my page on package plant failures.

Steve Nicol of Wastewater Watch in SA produces an amusing name and shame newsletter for those he considers to be rogue package plant manufacturers in his country.

Design is proceeding on the upgrading of the failing pharma effluent treatment plant. We should be on-site in October/November to carry out the work.

Labels: aerobic, africa, degradation, effluent, industrial, oil, package, PCB, pharmaceutical, plant south, sludge, waste, water

My French student is leaving today, so the supply of free assistance to my regular clients has ended!

The digestion experiments on PCB containing oily sludge seemed to give gently promising results, at least at 35C, so we may investigate further.

No problems with the turning down of the duff ETP's flow rate, so the client now has a bid for doing what is required to control the remaining non-compliances.

An enquiry for a metals removal plant came in this week, looks interesting, but the enquirer wants a free visit to discuss the job up-front, which may be problematic. I always find one can tell a serious from a speculative enquiry by whether the client will pay to meet you.

Labels: effluent, etp, industrial, metal, oil, PCB, problem, removal, sludge

Things not looking too promising for the experiment set up on Monday to test anaerobic digestion of PCB containing oily sludges in Manchester. No evidence of any gas generation as yet.

Awaiting the order for starting sampling work to establish the bast way forward for the pharma client.

Continuing to review "Elements of Environmental Chemistry". Can't see a thing wrong with it so far...

Labels: book, PCB, pharmaceutical, review, sludge, waste, wastewater, water

Other than designing a solution to the problems of our new pharmaceutical client, I have been reviewing a book for The Chemical Engineer magazine, and looking at carrying out an experiment to determine how well anaerobic digestion might reduce PCB levels in oily sludges.

I am having difficulty at present sourcing a small chopper pump which can be controlled by inverter to provide a better, smoother feed to the pharma client's plant without blocking concerns. No problem getting one with 75mm discharge size or above, but the small ones don't have an over-rated motor, which is recommended for variable speed drive.

The book I am reviewing is "Elements of Environmental Chemistry" by Ronald Hites. Seems like a pretty good little textbook.

The oily sludges I hope to treat with AD have been a problem at a couple of sites I provide technical cover for for years now, and it is getting increasingly difficult and expensive to dispose of them. It would be nice if we can get PCB levels down to non-hazardous numbers by this process. The experiment is fairly quick and dirty, so we should have a rough answer by August.

Something amusing I saw today on the quackery front: truth in alternative medicine at last...

Labels: anaerobic, chemical, chemistry, chopper, degradation, digestion, engineer, environment, oil, PCB, pharmaceutical, pump, sludge

It's been a quiet week in the office. I've mostly been attempting to teach my French work experience student (Cyril) how to use a library to research an area of scientific interest. In this case, the subject of interest is PCB contaminated groundwater. He is looking as some problems with floating oily sludges on a treatment plant I look after.

It turns out that the French-speaking world have never heard of the Science Citation Index and Chemical Abstracts. I'm waiting to find out what their librarians recommend as an alternative.

Just as I write that things are quiet, I have received a call from some people I quoted six months ago to look at a problem on a pharmaceutical effluent treatment plant...

Labels: effluent, groundwater, PCB, plant, treatment

I've decided to start a blog on the company website, covering things which interest me professionally.

I'm a Chemical Engineer and Environmental Scientist, working mainly in the field of Water Engineering, though I do also deal in more general environmental advice, mostly on behalf of a government funded scheme called Envirowise.

I used to work for water contractors who you will not now have heard of, because it is seemingly a rule in the water industry that companies have to change the name of their company from time to time, for a number of reasons. For good companies, this is usually something to do with the marketing department. For bad companies, the reasons may be less honourable. None of the people I used to work for went bust by bidding jobs at less than cost and then came back one month later as "(old company name) 2008 Limited", but this is far from uncommon in the industry.

I do quite a bit of work of packaged sewage treatment plants which are misbehaving, look after some groundwater treatment plants, and am also presently involved in something I do a bit of from time to time, water feature design. I am helping with the design of water features in the Parc1 development in Korea. Don't click on the link unless you have broadband, the graphic designers have gone nuts on the website.

I'm also interested in water quackery, and will post some stuff on this as I come across new examples.

Labels: chemical, design, effluent, engineer, environment, etp, groundwater, industrial, package, PCB, pharmaceutical, plant, problem, sewage, sludge, treatment, troubleshooting, wastewater