Goals for Spring 2009
Subteam Leader: Jeff Katz (jak232)
Other team members
Challenges
New Baffle System
- Build new baffle system that can be constructed quickly that allows for easy modification of baffles at the Pilot Plant
- Baffle system will consist of 3 (potentially 4 after fabricating a mock-up) PVC pipes running the length of each of the tank channels. Holes will be drilled in each of the baffles (two holes drilled in the area of upper and lower baffle overlap and one hole drilled in solely the top baffle – picture a triangular arrangement (another hole will be on the bottom baffle is we determine four pipes are necessary for stability)). The baffles will be sandwiched by rubber O-rings or another form of clamping (we will be discussing this with Paul Charles). Thus the baffles will remain in place when clamped and could be slid into different positions easily when necessary.
- Clearance height of the baffles will be determined by the maximum spacing of the baffles.
- Subteams of two from the PP team will be constructing a row of baffles for each of the floc tank channels. We will likely be utilizing baffles in the currently empty third channel of the flocculator.
- Calculations and building of the mockup will begin on Wed, Feb 18th
- Mock-up containing a few baffles will be built to check for stability of baffles and ease of use
- Baffles will be built and installed at Pilot Plant
Alum Dosing
- Working on converting PAC dosage to alum dosage
- Will be working with Po-Hsun and CU treatment plant operators for this
- Looking at plant operator logs from Cornell plant to see PAC dosage for different turbidities
- Will measure aluminum concentration of PAC and alum
- Monica has found documentation relating PAC and alum that will be reviewed at PP team meeting
Develop Flocculator Performance Curves
- Run the plant, fix any leaks or problems
- Art, Mike
- Calibrate all turbidity meters using standards from Ian
- Develop protocol for plant maintenance to ensure that collected data is not affected by dirty turbidimeters
- Develop plan to set alum dose appropriately (see above)
- Determine procedure for taking turbidity profiles for consistency and to make results comparable
- Testing will likely take place on weekends, when turbidity will not fluctuate greatly, and each setup can be run for an hour or so.
- Collect turbidity profiles for different baffle arrangements and tapered vs. non-tapered arrangements
- This will be ongoing for the duration of the semester
- Compile data, analyze, graph results
- Ongoing as data comes in
FReTA Comparison
- Set up FReTA to be used with the tube flocculator (three way comparison between CUWFP's flocculated water, the tube flocculated water, and the pilot plant flocculator)
- FReTA will be tested with floc tank water and hopefully with help from Chris Bordelmay and Tom Rapalee from the Cornell plant, after the treatment plant's flocculation
Pilot Plant Team Organization
- We will be working in three subteams:
- Turbidity profiles
- PAC -> alum dosing
- FReTA
Before any of the turbidity profiles can be utilized we will need to determine appropriate alum dosing. This will be an ongoing goal during the course of construction of the new baffle system. Hopefully by its completion we will have determined how to dose appropriately. If not, we will utilize Process Controller's dose cycling functionality to get profiles for each arrangement at different alum dosings before changing the arrangement. Subteams will be to work on turbidity profiles, more research into the relationship between PAC dosing and alum dosing, and a subteam will set up FReTA and run tests.
Bibliography
References for our project that our team has found in literature searches.
- Pernitsky, David J. & Edzwald, James K. "Selection of Alum and Polyaluminum Coagulants: Principles and Applications. Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology - AQUA. IWA Publishing, 2006.
- Qin, Jian-Jun, et al. "Impact of coagulation pH on enhanced removal of natural organic matter in treatment of reservoir water." Seperation and Purification Technolgy. Volume 49, Issue 3, May 2006, pg 295-298.
Deliverables
Submissions for end of semester
- New, more robust baffle system
- Method for obtaining turbidity profiles
- Table of conversions of PAC dosing to alum dosing
- Turbidity profiles for different baffle arrangements and for tapered vs. non-tapered baffles
- Settling velocity data for Pilot Plant FReTa
- Comparison of Pilot Plant FReTa results with lab results
- A fully functioning, practical pilot plant with concise instructions on how to use, maintain, etc. for transfer of knowledge to future PP teams.