Floating Floc Meeting Minutes

Fall 2008 Minutes

October 17th, 2008

Accomplishments

• Contacted John and Tamar in Honduras about attaining the information that may help us solve the floating floc problem.
• John replied today with the pHs of the effluent as well as the influent. I am still awaiting the temperature values.
• Wrote and posted the minutes

Metrics

• As discussed previously, Professor Gosset suggested that a change in pH or water temperature between the influent and the effluent may be the source of the problem.

Accomplishments

• Learned what the pH of the water is at some of the points. These were the values sent by John that Tamar took:

(while applying an alum dose of 20 mg/L)
Plant Entrance Tank: pH = 6.77
Plant Exit Tank: pH = 6.50

• Carlos, the operator, will continue taking pH data
  every day for a week.

Outcomes

• We know the pH in some of the tanks.
• Once I have all of the numbers I can see if the problem can be modeled using water chemistry.
• These numbers may be the key to solving the problem!
• John also suggested that maybe the turbulence at the entrance tank caused by the high flow rate could put more air bubbles in the system that then bring up floc in the sed tank.

Issues

• John and Tamar are having issues finding something to measure the temperature of the water as it enters the plant as well as when it leaves for the distribution tank.
• I am not sure yet if the pH of the influent was taken before or after the alum was added. It is important that the water tested does not have alum in it so that the difference can be analyzed.