In-Line Real-Time Measurement of Polymer Concentration in Centrate & Filtrate of Full-Scale Dewatering Facilities

Polymer consumption associated with sludge dewatering operations is typically a significant fraction of operating costs for wastewater treatment plants. Although efforts have been made to generate real-time signals that can be used for optimizing polymer dose, many of these have not proven to be robust or reliable. An ultraviolet-vis analyzer configured for 191 nm wavelength, which had been previously validated for quantitation of polymer residual at bench- scale, was tested at full-scale dewatering operations on both centrate and filtrate. The resulting data showed that UV-191 absorbance measurements exhibited the expected parabolic shaped curve, where the minimum absorbance value corresponded to the optimum polymer dose. The UV-191 analyzer can be used for in-line and real-time monitoring of polymer residual at full scale dewatering operations and auto-adjustment of polymer dose. Click below to download this white paper.