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Lansdale, PA -- When you’re the man in charge of a wastewater treatment plant that treats 1.2 million to 1.4 million gallons of water daily, services a city with 13,000 residents and have received eight awards for excellence in operation for its efforts, you have a certain reputation to uphold. So, last fall when Jack Robbins was surveying the operations at the 25-year-old wastewater treatment facility in Beatrice, NE, where he’s Superintendent of Water Pollution Control for the Board of Public Works, he didn’t really like what he saw in the sludge-processing area.
Specifically, he saw a dry-polymer make-down feed system that had been installed in 1981, one that required the mixing of dry polymer in one tank before it was transferred to another tank prior to mixing with the incoming wastewater. Polymer is integral to this operation because it causes the solid waste to clump and turn to sludge, which is then filtered out of the wastewater and disposed of. Through the years, this system, while state-of-the-art nearly 30 years ago, had become a drain on the Water Pollution Control department because of its inefficient operation, the rising cost of dry polymer and safety concerns associated with handling the polymer.
Robbins knew there had to be a better way to process the sludge, both for the treatment plant and its employees, as well as the residents of Beatrice, which is located on the Big Blue River in the state’s southeastern corner, some 40 miles south of Lincoln and 100 miles south of Omaha. Working with Tony Bilek, a Partner in Mc2, Inc., an Omaha-based manufacturer’s representative for water and wastewater equipment, Robbins began the search for a solution.
“They had two big aging tanks, two big mixers, a day tank, two large metering pumps—it was just a big eyesore, it took up a lot of space and it was kind of dirty and cumbersome to work with,” said Bilek. “Jack asked what was out there, something more simple.”
The answer turned out to be as simple as the difference between hot and cold, or young and old—Beatrice would go from dry to wet.
The Solution
Since the Beatrice facility’s throughput of 1.4 million gallons of water daily is considered “small” in the wastewater treatment business, the plant is not a huge user of dry polymer, so Bilek suggested a switch to a liquid system, namely dynaBlend® liquid-polymer-blending technology, which was patented by Fluid Dynamics, a division of Neptune Chemical Pump Co, Inc., Lansdale, PA.
Blending polymers for sludge processing can be a tricky business as the spectrum of available polymers has grown over the years. The dynaBlend system simplifies that process since it has been designed to effectively activate all types of liquid polymer. On top of that, the dynaBlend’s non-mechanical mixing chamber delivers an unequalled degree of reliability over many mechanical technologies. The system’s injection check valve has also been designed with easy disassembly and inspection in mind, eliminating a maintenance concern that troubles other systems.
“When I was looking over the dynaBLEND, I saw that it would eliminate the polymer mixing and we also wouldn’t need the tank for the sludge mixing either,” said Robbins. “We also wouldn’t have to make the polymer anymore. When you were mixing polymer, the heat and humidity would cause problems and occasionally you’d get spillage, which is a safety hazard. We would remove all of those things by going to the dynaBlend.”
Convinced he had the answer to Beatrice’s needs, Robbins put the wheels in motion for an L6-P Series model and it was installed in March, with nary a misstep or hang-up since day one.
“The start-up went great,” said Bilek. “We primed the pump, got the water going and had it optimized in an hour. It’s a pretty simple system, there’s not a lot of sophistication to it, and that’s the way Jack wanted it.”
Compared to the old dry-polymer system, which required a 30-foot by 30-foot square of floor space, the dynaBLEND measures only 24-inches deep by 24-inches wide by 68-inches tall, which eliminates much of the clutter in the sludge-processing area and makes it safer for the plant’s employees.
“This is a much smaller footprint,” said Robbins. “The polymer tank we had before was six feet in diameter and four feet high and the mixing tank was six feet high and three feet in diameter—and now they’re all gone. We also had a storage bin for the dry polymer.”
Instead, the facility, which processes the sludge on Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week, now has a 55-gallon drum of liquid polymer that is pumped directly into the dynaBLEND on an as-needed basis. In addition to the added efficiency, cleanliness and safety of the dynaBlend, Robbins has also noticed an economical benefit since the facility is using less of the liquid polymer.
“We’re using pretty close to half of the polymer that we used before,” he said. “We’ve gone through one 55-gallon drum in two months. We’d probably go through 400 to 500 pounds of dry polymer in the same time.”
Conclusion
When you’re in charge of a wastewater treatment plant that has been in operation for more than 25 years, you need to look for ways to make its operations more efficient, both in terms of service and cost for equipment, utilities, chemicals and man-hours. When taking stock of the old dry-polymer system that had been in use in Beatrice, Robbins knew there had to be a better way, and he’s convinced that he’s found the best solution in the dynaBlend liquid-polymer-blending technology from Fluid Dynamics, a division of Neptune Chemical Pump Co.
“We had been looking to do this, trying to find a new system and when we looked at the dynaBlend we thought it would fit our every need and it has; it’s been great,” said Robbins. “There’s less cleanup time, there’s no more time needed to make the polymer, it’s just a matter of pumping it into the system and away you go. The dynaBlend has definitely made life easier. It’s saved us not only the cost of the dry polymer, but also in man-hours because we don’t have to clean and maintain it like we had to with the old one. We’ve been extremely pleased with it.”
Web site: http://www.dynablend.com/
© Copyright 1998 - 2012 Water and Wastewater.com
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