Ultrasonics give blanket improvement at Talybont 16 April 2010

Welsh Water's Talybont-on-Usk treatment works is reporting an improvement in measurement accuracy since installing Pulsar Process Measurement's Sludge Finder 2 sludge system.

The site says that its new ultrasonic level monitoring system is now optimising sludge thickness, which, in turn, is enabling production of consistent solids content for onward pumping and processing.

This is a 70 MLD treatment works that has been fitted with a DAF (dissolved air flotation) treatment process, leading on to a new sludge treatment facility.

The sludge treatment plant incorporates two picket fence thickeners treating the sludge from the DAF process, plus dirty water from two other areas of the works.

Polyelectrolyte is dosed into the feed to aid settlement and the final sludge is then removed from the thickeners using positive displacement pumps.

Sludge Finder 2 was selected and installed by Black and Veatch, which says it chose the instrumentation on the basis of previous successful installations.

Sludge Finder 2 uses Pulsar's Viper self-cleaning transducer, which emits a sonar pulse that 'bounces' off the top of the sludge blanket. Key to the success of the unit is its echo processing software, which makes sense of the received signals, irrespective of their provenance.

Brian Tinham

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