Introduction
Effluent Treatment Plants often face the complex challenge of precisely dosing costly biological or chemical products into large, highly variable aeration tanks. The key to successful treatment is ensuring the chemical proportion is accurate relative to the effluent volume, and that the resulting change in water quality is achieved efficiently. This case study details how an operator implemented the Terra M Level Sensor and multi-sensor integration to optimize the proportional dosing of a new, patented product, ensuring maximum efficiency and cost savings in their aeration basin.
The Challenge
The client had a critical, large-volume aeration tank in their ETP. They were introducing a patented product designed to rapidly break down BOD and COD levels after a few hours of application, but faced three major hurdles:
- Inaccurate Proportional Dosing: The effluent level in the tank was constantly fluctuating. The manual or timer-based dosing method often resulted in over-dosing (wasting their product) when the level was low, or under-dosing (ineffective treatment) when the level was high.
- Inefficient Reaction Monitoring: They needed to monitor the effluent’s pH and the resulting Dissolved Oxygen (DO) concentration to determine the precise optimal “dose-to-volume” ratio required for the product to be effective.
- Operational Instability: Due to inconsistent dosing and poor level monitoring, they lacked “Automatic leakage detection” and “Overflow & dry run-protection” in the critical chemical storage tanks and treatment tanks.
The Solution
TerraConnect deployed the Terra M IoT controller and its level sensor technology, leveraging the controller’s ability to orchestrate dynamic automations by pairing level sensing with multiple water quality sensors like pH and dissolved oxygen sensors.
Real-Time Proportional Dosing
The Terra M level sensor provided continuous, accurate tank volume data (effluent level). This data was used to automatically calculate the exact dose needed for the patented product to maintain a perfect dose-to-volume proportion in real-time, regardless of fluctuations in the tank.
Multi-Parameter Control
Terra M integrated with both the pH and Dissolved Oxygen sensors mounted on the aeration tank. The dosing pump was then automated to stop or start based on the volume of a batch of effluent pumped to the tank, and the achieved pH and DO level during the aeration process was monitored for the entirety of the batch, ensuring the chemical reaction reached the desired outcome before proceeding to the next stages of effluent treatment and subsequent release to the water bodies.
System Integrity Monitoring
The level sensor was installed in the chemical storage tanks to provide “Overflow & dry run-protection” for the chemical pump and “Automatic leakage detection” for the tank, ensuring constant system integrity.
Improvement in Dosing Accuracy (Product Proportion)
By using the level sensor to determine the exact volume of effluent, the system achieved a near-perfect proportional dose, minimizing waste of the patented product and determining its effectiveness.
Reduction in Stabilization Time
Precise proportional dosing, combined with real-time monitoring, optimized the chemical reaction rate, ensuring the required level was achieved faster, leading to higher throughput.