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Development of robust sustainable drinking water treatment technologies requires improved methods of metering aqueous chemical solutions. Existing technologies either required contact with the chemical solution when adjusting the flow rate or they didn't provide a calibrated method for setting the flow tot the target value. The AguaClara team at Cornell University developed a low cost flow control module based on laminar pipe flow. The flow control module features a variable calibrated flow. The range of design flow rates is a function of the viscosity of the solution. For dilute solutions with viscosities similar to pure water the flow control modules can be designed in the range of 10 to 500 mL/min. The flow control module has been field tested for metering chlorine and aluminum sulfate for AguaClara water treatment plants in Honduras.

Keywords: Flow Control Module, Laminar, Variable, Calibrated, AguaClara

The lack of robust and sustainable technologies for chemical dosing and flow control that don't require electrical power continues to adversely affect the ability to reliably provide safe drinking water. Conventional municipal surface water treatment requires the addition of a coagulant solution as well as the addition chlorine. Ideally the flow control device would have the following characteristics:

• calibrated to easily vary the flow rate
• handle corrosive chemicals
• incorporate a linear scale to facilitate setting the flow without need to use trial and error
• be resistant to clogging
• be easy to maintain and operate
• be easily adapted for a range of flow rates
• be economical, small, and easily used to replace existing flow control devices

Water treatment plants in industrialized nations often use variable speed peristaltic pumps or other positive displacement pumps for this purpose. Many potential water treatment plant sites in the Global South don't have ready access to electricity and frequently the electrical grid is unreliable. The AguaClara team at Cornell University recognized the need for an improved gravity powered flow control device and began evaluating the available technologies and ultimately developed and tested a flow control module with the desired characteristics.

The AguaClara team first recognized the need for an improved flow control module during site visits of community water supply systems in Honduras in 2004. The standard Honduran design for community water supply systems consists of a surface water source that is piped to a distribution tank and then distributed via a pipe network to homes. The only water treatment is the addition of hypochlorite. Most communities use granular calcium hypochlorite to prepare a concentrated chlorine solution in a small tank that is located on top of the distribution tank. The original design of the hypochlorinators called for a floating structure that held a flexible tube with a submerged orifice. This system theoretically provided a constant flow through the submerged orifice. The orifice flow is set by the size of the orifice and the distance between the water (or chlorine) surface and the center of the orifice.

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where the orifice coefficient, K~orifice~ has a value of approximately 0.6. In practice the orifice clogged quickly, the flow rate was very difficult to adjust, and maintenance and operation required contact with the concentrated chlorine solution. Perhaps due to these difficulties the design evolved and a 1/2" PVC valve was installed on the exit pipe at the bottom of the chlorine tank, the floating orifice was removed, and the flow is adjusted by a trial and error setting of the valve position. This modification created a system that was easier to maintain, but the valve was still subject to frequent clogging and the hydraulic design no longer provided a constant flow. The flow decreases as the reservoir drains. If the operator sets the valve to deliver a flow rate such that the reservoir would drain in 4 days, then in 4 days the flow rate will actually decrease significantly over the course of the 4 days and by the end of the design period the theoretical flow is given by

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where h~ res~ is the initial depth of chemical solution in the reservoir, h~ 0~ is the vertical distance between the initial free surface and the orifice (the valve), t~ design~ is the duration that the chemical supply was supposed to last, and Q~0~ is the initial flow rate from the valve. Thus if the valve is located at almost the same elevation as the bottom of the reservoir, then when t = t~ design~ the flow will be approximately one half of the design flow. Since these simple devices are used throughout Honduras to regulate the chlorine dose there is a 50% variation in the chlorine dose caused by the hydraulic design of the hypochlorinators.

Another design for a constant flow device is called a floating bowl (add reference). It is conceptually similar to the design used in Honduras, but the flow is adjusted by varying the submergence of the bowl. The submergence is varied by adding or removing pepples from the bowl. This technique also requires reaching into the chemical solution to adjust the pepples.

Maintaining a constant flow of chemical is difficult because of the fluctuations in the level of the chemical in the stock tank. The variable head means that any restrictions used to regulate the flow will cause a decreasing flow rate as the tank empties. One simple solution to this problem would be to use an elevated tank with a large head driving the fluid through the flow restriction. Then the small variation in the driving head as the tank emptied would not be as significant. The disadvantages of this approach are the construction and operation difficulties of the elevated tank and the clogging of the flow restriction. Thus we need a solution that isolates the flow restriction from the variable head of the stock tank and we need a flow restriction that is as large as possible to minimize clogging.

Creation of a constant flow requires a constant driving force and a constant pressure coefficient or loss coefficient. An almost constant driving force can be obtained by using a very large driving head with small variations due to level fluctuations in the stock tanks. A more practical approach is to use a float valve to regulate the chemical level in a small tank. The constant fluid level can then be used to develop a constant flow. Recent advances in small low cost chemical resistant float valves have made it possible to use float valves even with corrosive chlorine solutions.

Laminar flow constraint
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Head loss constraint
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The minimum theoretical diameter that could be used is the maximum of the previous two equations.

The design diameter of the tubing is obtained by selecting the minimum diameter of available tubing that is larger than the minimum theoretical diameter.

Minimum diameter of tubing to produce the desired head loss at the maximum flow using the minimum feasible length of tubing. Based on the Hagen-Poiseuille equation.

flow control module design webpage

Flow control modules will generate a linear response between head loss and chemical flow rate as long as expansion losses are small relative to shear losses and as long as the flow is laminar.
Design of the flow control module consists of choosing a maximum head loss corresponding to the maximum design flow rate, and then determining the diameter and length of the tubing.