Wastewater treatment is a crucial part of the production process for many industrial facilities. The failure or malfunctioning of wastewater treatment can have a devastating effect on production, as it often requires production to a complete halt until it is possible to restore water treatment capability.
The short- and medium-term rental of compressors and blowers for wastewater treatment applications is provided by Aerzen. This allows businesses to stay on their feet by preventing costly downtime.
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The Importance of Wastewater Treatment
Wastewater treatment involves the removal of contaminants from water so that it can be returned to the water cycle. This is an essential step for the prevention of environmental pollution from industrial waste.
The disposal of wastewater is under strict regulation set by global authorities to limit the amount and type of wastewater that is allowed to be processed in municipal treatment plants.1,2
This means that many industries, including electronics manufacturing, power plants, chemical processing (including gas and oil), food and drink and textiles, have purpose-built wastewater treatment plants onsite wherever large volumes of effluent are produced.
The failure of wastewater treatment equipment can have huge consequences for treatment facilities because wastewater treatment typically occurs at, or near the end of the production cycle.
Typically, production must be shut down if wastewater cannot be processed fast enough. This downtime can cause an enormous cost to these large industrial facilities.
This dilemma was faced by a food manufacturing company after unexpected problems resulted in a fruit juice manufacturing facility being unable to process its wastewater. The newly constructed fruit juice company was meant to be an expansion of the existing wastewater treatment plant onsite.
However, there was a four-month delay to the construction of the water treatment plant extension due to unforeseen events. The facility was unable to run because it was unable to process effluent.
This meant that the facility operators could either find an alternative solution or leave the facility inactive for four months and absorb the significant losses incurred.
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Solving Wastewater Treatment Problems
In this instance, the company chose to find a new solution and contacted a renowned water engineering company to figure out a solution. The decision was to install temporary wastewater treatment capacity by converting an existing sludge storage tank into a Sequencing Batch Reactor, also known as an SBR.
SBR’s rely on effluent aeration in the presence of microorganisms that break down organic matter to render the effluent suitable for discharge into the water cycle.3
Constructing an SBR, therefore, requires air diffusers to diffuse air into small bubbles to maximize productivity and air blowers that are capable of creating a sufficient volume of air to the tank contents.
Aerzen was ideally positioned to supply the necessary equipment to support this problem through their short- and mid-term rental service.
Aerzen provided a 1500 m3/h air blower and three fine bubble aeration grid diffusers. They also supplied all of the necessary pipes and pumps that were required to transfer process effluent to a buffer tank and transfer homogeneous effluents into a mud silo.
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The Aerzen Rental Solutions team worked to rapidly identify and solve the safety and logistical challenges of the project, including the use of a crane for lifting and placing the aeration grids, delivery of equipment via trucks and stabilization of soft ground on the construction site.
The service engineers tested, connected and installed each piece of equipment. The facility was able to focus on production once the biological treatment mass had been sown and the SBR tank could go online.
Aerzen Rental Solutions for Emergency Wastewater Treatment
Aerzen understands how business can be impacted by the catastrophic consequences of wastewater treatment failure. Their rental service provides short- to mid-term lease of top-of-the-line oil-free neutral air and gas blowers for wastewater applications.
Additionally, they supply all the required accessories to seamlessly integrate wastewater treatment into existing processes; this includes pipes and hoses, electrical cables, transformers and generators.
Aerzen has more than 150 years of experience and has built an extensive knowledge of the needs of various industries. The company has a truly unique offering: they offer six different compression ratios and variable speed drives as standard to enable customers to achieve the optimum pressure and flow rate, no matter the application.
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This allows for the elimination of losses associated with over-compression that can occur with market-standard 10 bar(g) oil-free compressors. Aerzen provides robust, plug-and-play solutions ranging from -650 mbar(g) vacuum to 10 bar(g) overpressure.
Aerzen has a large fleet of 100% oil-free units and depots across North America and Europe and can provide 24/7 delivery and service wherever and whenever it’s required.
The company’s technical and logistical resources combined with their expertise results in being able to rapidly mobilize and ensure continuity of production for customers.
References
- European Environment Agency. Industrial waste water treatment: pressures on Europe’s environment. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2800/496223 (2019).
- US EPA, O. Effluent Guidelines. US EPA https://www.epa.gov/eg (2014).
- Wilderer, P. A., Irvine, R. L. & Goronszy, M. C. Sequencing Batch Reactor Technology. (IWA Publishing, 2001).
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Aerzener Maschinenfabrik GmbH.
For more information on this source, please visit Aerzener Maschinenfabrik GmbH.