What Is Wastewater Treatment?

The global population, consciously or subconsciously, contributes to an extensive volume of wastewater, often equivalent to sewage. This overwhelming output is so extensive that the natural purification process cannot effectively eliminate the toxic chemicals it contains. As a result, this wastewater harms people, plants, and animals alike.

Wastewater treatment removes suspended solids and contaminants from wastewater. This treated and potable water can be further disposed of back to the environment, free from human-made contaminants. 

Being the superior engineering company in the UAE with 18 years of experience, Technomax offers an extensive suite of advanced technologies from Valmet, tailored to suit your wastewater treatment process requirements.

In this article, let’s get into the significance of Valmet’s solutions in enhancing the overall reliability and efficiency of wastewater treatment and explore the role of Technomax in safeguarding the ecosystem. 

What Is Wastewater, and Why Do We Treat It?

Wastewater refers to the water that, once put into use, needs to be treated before being released to other water bodies in a way that does not cause further pollution. 

Wastewater can come from a variety of sources. For instance, the water from the toilet or drains or the rainwater and runoff, collect pollutants as they flow into the street gutters. Additionally, wastewater can originate from agricultural or industrial sources. Though treating industrial wastewater is difficult, domestic wastewater is comparatively easier to handle. However, in recent times, domestic wastewater management has become increasingly tedious due to the high concentration of chemicals, specifically personal care and pharmaceutical constituents, found in it.

Wastewater is clogged with dangerous pollutants that require careful treatment before disposal,involving  crucial steps like initial screening, sedimentation, biological degradation, filtration, and the elimination of impurities. 

What Makes Wastewater Treatment a Must-Have Process?

If wastewater is not treated appropriately, then it negatively affects human health and the environment. The consequences of a lack of wastewater treatment include beach closures, harm to fish and wildlife, oxygen depletion, and various restrictions on the use of recreational water. 

Wastewater treatment is crucial to eliminate suspended solids before releasing the effluents back into nature. Accurate solid measurements play a vital role in wastewater treatment, and adopting optimal processing and advanced techniques is necessary to ensure environmental safety.

Technomax offers advanced solutions for solid measurements using Valmet solutions. Their systems provide efficient monitoring and control of solid content, accurate assessment of solid levels, identification of impurities, and effective elimination of contaminants in the wastewater, ensuring a holistic approach to wastewater treatment.

What Is the Process of Wastewater Treatment?

Wastewater treatment involves three key phases: 

Primary Treatment

Upon primary treatment, wastewater gets temporarily held in a settling tank. In this phase, the heavier solids settle at the bottom of the tank while the lighter solids float on the surfaces of the tanks. After settling, the materials get held back, and the remaining liquid gets moved through to the next vigorous phase of wastewater treatment. The mechanical scrapers supporting the large tanks repeatedly drive the collected sludge into the base, which passes to the hopper and moves it to the sludge treatment facilities. 

Secondary Treatment

The secondary phase of wastewater treatment operates at an in-depth level than primary treatment and is designed to degrade the biological components of waste with the aerobic process. With secondary treatment, you encourage the secure release of water to the local environment, which keeps the biodegradable contaminants at safe levels. Secondary treatment is done in three ways:

Biofiltration: Biofiltration uses sand filters, trickling filters, or contact filters to ensure any extra sediment is removed from wastewater. 

Aeration: This process improves oxygen saturation by introducing air to wastewater. The aeration process can last almost 30 hours, but it is an ideal technique. 

Oxidation Ponds: This method is specifically used in warmer climates. They are also called stabilisation ponds or lagoons, which are large and designed to treat wastewater involving bacteria, sunlight, and algae. 

Tertiary Treatment 

Tertiary wastewater treatment focuses on increasing the quality of the treated water through domestic and industrial measures or meeting the particular needs of ensuring the safe discharge of water. In the case of municipally treated water, tertiary treatment also involves eliminating pathogens. This ensures that the water is even safer for drinking purposes. 

How Are Solid Measurements With Valmet Products Used For Wastewater Treatments?

From establishing a firm presence in municipal wastewater treatment plants and commercial facilities across the globe, Valmet continuously delivers verified results. The wastewater solutions from Valmet play a crucial role in solids dewatering, effluent treatment, primary and secondary clarifiers, thickening, and processing of dewatered solids, including thermal heating and biogas plants. 

Here are the core measurements dedicated to wastewater measurement with Valmet:

• Total Solids Measurement- TS

Valmet TS measurement uses advanced microwave technology to regulate and tackle total solids. It exhibits the following features:

• Achieve full-fledged control over wastewater treatment through leveraging real-time and continuous solids measurements. 
• Prompt response to the changing processes and aligning with the total solids target.
• Save time with dependable, direct, and completely maintenance-free measurements. 

With advanced microwave technology and no wearing components, Valmet TS offers reliable and precise total solids measurement, ideal for all wastewater processing methods. 

• Low Solids Measurement- LS

Valmet LS measurement helps to choose the right type and volume of polymer during sludge dewatering. This includes the following attributes:

• Increased polymer dosing efficiency and cost savings with real-time centrate solids data.
• End-to-end supervision of wastewater treatment capacity through refining the dewatering process.
• Identifies the ideal polymer type with holistic and full-scale online testing.
• Replaces the requirement for manual sampling and lab tests through streamlined techniques. 

The measurement of suspended solids in filtrate and centrate has been a difficult task. Low solids usually contain debris, phosphate build-up, and foam, creating difficulty in achieving a consistent measurement. Valmet LS helps to overcome these possibilities adeptly. 

• Dry Solids Measurement- DS

Designed to treat dried wastewater sludge, the Valmet DS measurement offers reliable online measurements that pave the way for significant savings. The main characteristics of Valmet DS include:

• Minimises the expenses related to dry cake and fuel transportation while maximising the total solids. 
• Optimisation of the dewatering process to improve efficiency and save energy. 
• Treating the subsequent dry cake through optimised cake solids. 
• Substantial reduction of polymer consumption through refining dosage and centrifuge torque. 

Dry Solids measurement uses safe microwave technology to offer precise results, which facilitate the best dewatering control during wastewater treatment. 

• High Solids Measurement- HS 

High Solids measurement gives an accurate consistency that uses microwave technology. The features of the Valmet HS measurement include:

• Energy efficiency and minimisation of side fuel usage through the refining drying process in incineration and biogas plants.
• Manage chemical dosing and process configurations to improve solid content, reducing transportation costs. 
• Attaining precise consistency control for different complex industrial applications.

With precise dry solid measurement methods, Valmet helps you with minimised chemical usage, energy savings, high-end sustainability and diverse applications of control systems. 

• Sludge Dewatering Optimiser- SDO

Valmet SDO represents an advanced method for sludge dewatering. When merged with the wastewater measurements, SDO converts the precise measurements into process improvements for ultimate savings. The key aspects of the Valmet SDO include:

• Optimise operations 24x7 and minimise the dependency on lab sampling.
• Reduce polymer consumption with ongoing feedback on dosing efficiency.
• Minimise energy consumption costs for incineration, drying, and transportation. 

Valmet SDO uses a Multivariable Predictive Control (MPC) model to monitor polymer dosing and centrifuge torque. Also, it stabilises the flow of sludge mass to the centrifuge. 

• Samplers 

The Consistency and High Consistency Samplers from Valmet, known as Valmet Nove and Nove H, are widely employed by paper and pulp mills across the world and provide reliable samples for laboratory analysis. The core features of samplers include:

• High repeatability: Great resilience to fluctuations in flow and operator-specific sampling
• Secure sampling- Specially engineered to exhibit safe collection in challenging environments
• Automated functionality- ensures seamless auto-synchronisation of sampling operations. 

The design of Nove and Nove H, coupled with the built-in feature for flushing, follows a consistent and representative sampling with time. The samplers stay unaffected by the fluctuations in the flow and are built to reduce the variations that can occur from operator sampling methods. 

How does Valmet’s Wastewater Treatment Make a Difference?

Valmet wastewater measurement systems craft significant solutions for ideal wastewater treatment and offer real-time solid measurement technologies that support sludge treatment control and related processes. Here are the core features that make Valmet versatile in this field:

• Reliability and Accuracy:

Valmet’s products are engineered to deliver reliable insights into wastewater composition, making sure they provide reliable data to generate informed decisions. 

• Resilience in Harsh Environments:

Designed to withstand the complex processes and hindrances in wastewater treatment mechanisms while improving efficiency. 

• Continuous Monitoring:

Uninterrupted monitoring that allows proactive adjustments and fine-tuning in the treatment procedures.

• Global Installation:

With a proven track record of providing reliable and consistent wastewater treatment solutions, Valmet’s products serve both industrial facilities and municipal treatment plants worldwide.

Leveraging Wastewater Treatment Solutions From Technomax

Technomax is a well-established supplier of equipment and engineering services in the GCC and Middle East regions. With over 18 years of experience, they have served leading companies in the oil and gas, marine, petrochemical, engineering, and infrastructure industries. Technomax is an approved distributor of Valmet's products and services.

Valmet is a global supplier of automation systems, services, and certified process technologies for wastewater treatment and solid measurement solutions. At Technomax, experts offer a carefully selected range of quality products to ensure they meet clients' expectations. Technomax offers condition monitoring services like vibration analysis, oil analysis, laser shaft alignment services, partial discharge (PD) testing, and more.