This semester, I have learned a lot about the pilot plant and its role in the AguaClara project. In the beginning of the semester, I worked with the team to make several modifications to the plant. These included enlarging the holes between baffle sections, cleaning the tank, and designing a support mechanism so that the tube settlers can be submerged in the water.
One of the concerns that we had with the data from previous semesters is that the tube settlers might not be a good approximation of AguaClara's standard sedimentation tanks. In order to verify the data from the tube settlers, I designed a grab sample procedure. The calculations for this procedure can be found here
under the heading "Jar Test Turbidity Sampling" which is under "Testing Set-Up Modifications" section. The data from this procedure will be compared to the data from the turbidimeters to verify the validity of our testing procedures.
Also, I looked into data analysis techniques that I will use to analyze the data from the plant. The information on these programs and how I intend to use them can be found here under the "Data Analysis Techniques" section. Unfortunately, due to the many changes that we made in plant set-up, we have not yet collected data. Most recently, overflow from the automatic flow control device has prevented data collection. I am excited to analyze data starting the week after Spring Break to observe the effects of the improvements we have made to the flocculator.
During the rest of the semester, I anticipate that I will be busy with building the sedimentation tank and analyzing data from the floc and sed tanks. My Gantt Chart can be seen below. Hopefully, we will be able to make a preliminary conclusion about whether an upflow clarifier-type sedimentation tank could help the AguaClara plants attain effluent water that is consistently less than 1NTU.
