Chemical Dose Controller

Overview

The chemical dose controller is currently comprised of three projects, the linear flow orifice meter, the flow controller, and the chemical doser. These components of the system act together to allow the plant to respond to changes in inflow by both linearizing the change in plant flow and automatically adjusting chemical dosing to the plant. With this system AguaClara plants should be more resilient because operators are only required to adjust chemical dosing settings based on incoming turbidity, not based on flow rates.

Stay up-to-date on this project by checking the [Meeting Minutes] and [goals]

Current Research Teams

[Linear Chemical Does Contoller]

• The Linear Flow Orifice Meter riser pipe, LFOM, is located in the entrance tank. It is used in the plant when chemical dose flows are laminar. The LFOM tank creates a linear relationship between the flow rate through the plant and the height of water in the entrance tank so that a float system can be used control the chemical dose.

• The [Chemical Doser] creates a directly proportional relationship between the plant inflow tank water level and the flow controller outflow tubing level.

• The Flow Controller maintains a constant head level in a small bottle so that hydraulics can be used to dose a specific chemical flow rate solely by controlling the outflow tubing level.

Nonlinear Chemical Dose Controller

• A linear dose controller has been designed to control chemical doses when flow in the dosing tube is laminar based on a linear relationship between headloss in the dosing tube and entrance tank level. This relationship does not hold when flow in the dosing tube is turbulent. Therefore, a chemical doser with a constant chemical dose response to nonlinear changes in plant flow is being designed.

[Gracias Entrance Tank Design]

• We are currently working on the design of the entrance tank for a new plant that will be built in Gracias.