Industrial Wastewater Treatment

Water Testing For Industrial Wastewater Treatment

Water is a key component to many manufacturing, refining, and energy processes. In most of these cases, it will end its service as industrial wastewater. This industrial wastewater may be comprised of its original constituents, but they may be at a higher or cycled up level. Industrial wastewater may also contain contaminants like metals, organics, chemicals, or other by-products of its use in the manufacturing process. As such, industrial wastewater often requires treatment before it can be re-used or released into the environment as effluent. Any physical or chemical preparation of the water for re-use or disposal is considered industrial wastewater treatment. To properly treat the wastewater, it is important to understand its chemistry and components. High quality testing equipment and reagents are key to determining what treatment your wastewater requires.

Who Can Benefit From Wastewater Testing?

Industries such as mining, food & beverage, metals, power generation, oil & gas, chemical, and general manufacturing share many of the same wastewater treatment needs and treatment technologies. In some cases, even water systems associated with HVAC systems produce waters that the facility must consider as wastewater and treat. While there are common elements between water treatment across industries, many of these industries will have unique contaminants that will present unique challenges.

Many producers of industrial wastewater are also subject to National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting and heavily rely on testing to ensure compliance with these permits. These permits limit the concentration of contaminants in wastewater effluent to protect people’s health and the environment.

The testing and monitoring of wastewater influent and effluent is central to the determination of how to apply a treatment program as well as gauging its success. The ramifications for failing to properly treat the water can range from out of specification products to large governmental fines or even legal consequences. Most importantly, there may be health or safety concerns with improperly treated industrial wastewater.

High-Quality Products for Wastewater Testing

Testing the industrial wastewater prior to, during, and post treatment relies on having the proper equipment. The items required to perform water testing are generally packaged in the form of a test kit. These kits can be comprised of reagents, testing apparatus such as laboratory glassware, and/or instrumentation such as handheld or bench type meters and analyzers. These kits may be dedicated to a single parameter or may contain the necessary equipment to perform a multitude of tests.

Some of the commonly measured analytes that are shared with other industries are hardness, alkalinity, pH, conductivity, oxidizers, reducing agents, chelants, and even some metals. While in many cases the methods associated with these tests are the same as those of other applications, in some cases the methods are specific to wastewater. This is usually due to the difference in concentration ranges for industrial wastewater analytes. Occasionally the methods are altered to account for presences of process contaminants unique to industrial wastewater.

Some key analytes that a wastewater monitoring and treatment program may be measuring are:

• Turbidity
• Total Organic Carbon (TOC)
• Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)
• Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)
• Polymers, Flocculants, and Coagulants
• Solids
• Metals
• Process contaminates
• Nutrients
• Biological testing (Dip Slide, ATP, Plate Counts, etc.)
• Color and Odor
• Freeze Points
• Total Suspended Solids (TSS)

 

Selecting what parameters to measure is vital to a successful wastewater treatment operation. You will measure different analytes depending on the quality of your incoming water, the treatment systems you have, and your effluent limits. Frequent testing will help your treatments remain efficient, prevent governmental fines, and prevent costly maintenance.

Along with the selection of the correct testing parameters and corresponding tests, the maintenance and validation of these are paramount to the success of the treatment program. Calibrating instruments on a regular basis is recommended as well as keeping up with the latest treatment technologies. Calibration solutions, pH buffers, probe storage solutions, and standards should be used to ensure your instruments provide accurate and reliable test results.

Simplify Your Supply Chain with AquaPhoenix

AquaPhoenix is an industry-leading manufacturer and distributor of reagents, test kits and laboratory equipment. We provide prompt shipping and live customer support to keep business simple. Our test kits are available, pre-configured for a variety of standard water treatment parameters and industry specific combinations. AquaPhoenix is also industry leading in the design and manufacturing of custom testing kits and solutions. Contact us to discuss your specific industrial wastewater testing needs. One of our knowledgeable representatives will work with you to develop a solution for your testing needs.