From Guest Blogger Jayde Ferguson: Five Benefits of an Effective Wastewater Management System
For companies in many industries, finding the best wastewater treatment system for remote sites is like winning the lottery – it’s what you want, but doing it isn’t always easy. Working in fragile ecosystems and extreme environments where water is at a premium, companies have to ensure often complex and difficult effluents are treated effectively, efficiently and economically.
Luckily, sophisticated modern treatment developments are helping the mining, oil and gas industries to ensure even the remotest of sites can successfully treat their wastewater to exacting standards. The range of technologies available is wide, as are the advantages. We’ll look at some of the key benefits of an effective wastewater management in detail below.
1. Robustness and Reliability
On remote sites, operators need their treatment systems to be reliable – breakdowns are costly, not just in terms of money and time but also environmental damage (and penalties) if the system goes down. Operators are also often not highly skilled, so robustness is vital.
Among the advanced technologies available, compact MBRs (membrane bioreactors) are particularly robust. Their tough, high-quality design means they cope well with the severe operating conditions often found in Australia’s remote industrial sites.
2. Compactness and Transportability
Sites that are restricted in size or already crowded often prize compactness. Transportability can also be a major issue for remote operations, particularly if site access is difficult. For both issues, SAFs (submerged aerated filters) can provide significant benefits.
SAFs are among the most portable of current technologies, as they are usually fitted into one or two containers, depending on the size of the system. This means they can be transported to site as a small footprint, complete treatment unit, and are easy to install. As a result, they are particularly well suited to use at mine sites and exploration camps, or in remote communities.
3. Effective Treatment
As well as easy transportation, advanced treatment systems provide excellent levels of treatment, which are often required at remote sites where preserving the local environment is important.
For example, the relatively simple SAF process effectively reduces total suspended solids, nitrogen and phosphate to low levels and produces a reliable, high quality effluent. MBRs produce crystal-clear treated water with hardly any suspended solids, minimal biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) to meet even the strictest performance requirements.
4. Ability to Cope with Difficult Wastewaters
Industrial wastewaters are often difficult to treat. Wastewater quality and quantity can both fluctuate, and the effluent composition itself can vary depending on the industrial process. Such challenging wastewaters need treatment solutions that can cope with significant change.
Any membrane-based process (such as microfiltration or ultrafiltration) will provide outstanding and reliable results regardless of effluent quality, quantity or composition, as they are physical rather than biological processes. They are often teamed with other treatment technologies for outstanding results and reduced maintenance.
5. Wastewater Reuse
The advanced solutions discussed above are often used either alone or in combination to create excellent final wastewater, which can be of great benefit in remote, water-short areas.
If the treated wastewater is of sufficiently good quality, it can be used onsite for various purposes such as flushing toilets, irrigation, or washing vehicles and other equipment. There are huge advantages; not only does reusing wastewater reduce the amount of clean water needed on site (and all the associated costs), it also decreases the amount of wastewater that has to be disposed of, which further drives down costs. As more work and remote sites become green friendly, looking for effective ways to recycle water in the industry has never been so important.
The sustainable benefits of wastewater management systems are undeniable. And as remote sites need to continually improve their maintenance standards and safe use of wastewater, it makes sense to start investing in something that’ll do the job properly. With the right wastewater system, remote sites are able to have well-established and reliable water in the industry; all while significantly reducing costs.
Author Bio
This article is written by Jayde Ferguson, who writes for Tristar Water Solutions – a water and waste water treatment company offering design, fabrication, installation, testing, commissioning, servicing and maintenance of water related infrastructure. You can catch Jayde on Google+.
