Factors for the successful design of a water treatment plant

The successful design of a water treatment plant goes through a number of important stages and factors, which guarantee the success of the plant before it is built.

The criteria leading to a successful design of a water treatment plant are:

• Talent means developing your mental abilities to deduce and find quick solutions to any design problem.
• Creativity means the designer’s ability to present everything new in all stages of design implementation.
• Experience is the number of successfully completed projects and solutions provided to various problems.
• Tools used Where it must be ensured that the latest tools and technologies are selected.
• Commitment to agreed delivery dates and designs and give unexpected results for the better.

Dunkin’ Donuts processing plant after being designed and built with the latest technology and tools.

Criteria and Considerations for the successful design of a water treatment plant

There are several methods of treatment that the designer can choose the most appropriate according to the nature of the site, provided that the treated water meets the specified conditions, standards, and requirements, in order to protect public health and the environment. When selecting treatment devices, the following criteria and considerations are taken into account:

• The suitability of the plant for the quality of the water to be reused.
• Determine the design capacity of the station to match the actual need for its use.
• The efficiency of the plant to achieve the highest yield of treated water.
• The efficiency of the station to achieve high-quality water produced in accordance with the specifications of the World Health
• Organization and the General Presidency of Meteorology and Environmental Protection.
• The suitability of the station for the site and the number of users.
• Low cost, ease of operation, and maintenance.

What is a water treatment plant?

Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it suitable for a specified end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, aquatic recreation, or many other uses, including safely returning to the environment. Water treatment removes contaminants and unwanted components or reduces their concentration so that the water is suitable for the desired end-use. This treatment is essential to human health and allows humans to benefit from drinking and irrigation use.

When designing water treatment facilities, the main factors to consider are the type of water source, the final water quality, the skill of the facility operators, and the number of funds available.

Successful design and maintenance of reverse osmosis systems

Reverse osmosis (RO) systems provide power plant owners and operators with a reliable and well-proven water treatment solution. However, designing and maintaining a reverse osmosis system requires a thorough understanding of the plant’s water supply and technology capabilities. The information presented here can assist plant engineers in designing and optimizing a reverse osmosis system to suit their needs.

Osmosis is the process by which a solvent, such as water, flows through a semi-permeable membrane from a solution of lower concentration to a solution of higher concentration. This normal osmotic flow (reverse osmosis) can be reversed by applying hydraulic pressure to a more concentrated (contaminated) solution to produce pure water.

Important points to keep in mind:

Water sample analysis

Drawing a sample of water for laboratory analysis is a good start in setting up a reverse osmosis design (Table 1). The comprehensive analysis provides data on the minerals in the water, such as iron, manganese, and aluminum; dissolved salts (cations and anions); water pH (acidity); and possibly inorganic total suspended solids (TSS). The measurement of total organic carbon (TOC) is often associated with biological activity potential.

Total dissolved solids analysis reveals the concentration of leachable solids in the water. The concentration of water-dissolved minerals, such as iron, changes in the sample as they react with oxygen produced by contact with air. This causes some metals to oxidize and become insoluble. Minerals that remain suspended may cause the TDS value to increase significantly with many well water sources.

Maintenance

It is critical to the success of either reducing agent injection or carbon filtration. It is recommended to replace the activated carbon media annually, or based on increasing total organic carbon effluent concentration, to prevent leakage of biological particles into the reverse osmosis system.

Prevent the formation of scaling

There is usually at least one salt in any natural water source that will be concentrated beyond its solubility and potential scale. Preventing scale formation should not be a major challenge unless the water source has an unusually high concentration of slightly soluble salt, or unless the reverse osmosis is running with an unusually high permeability recovery.

Scale formation can be prevented by injecting an acid into the incoming water, softening the water, or injecting chemical scale inhibitors. Usually, the least expensive method is a scale inhibitor. That slows the growth rate of salt crystals when their solubility is exceeded.