Various Pumping Requirements for Water and Waste Water Treatment Plants, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Infrastructures like reservoirs, pipelines, pumping plants, treatment plants, hydroelectric plants and disposal facilities serves to collect, deliver, and treat water and waste water require specific pumps, to ensure maximum efficiency in terms of daily volumes of water received and processed, cost of operations, the quality of the water and the ability to ensure process sustainability.

Demand Determination

According to the Department of the Army (1992), population and water consumption rates are the main bases of on which flow demands and water distribution systems are designed, and the factors for this to become a reality are ((a) the average daily consumption, annual maximum daily consumption (MDC), peak hour consumption on annual maximum day, and the MDC plus simulated flow.

Additionally, the pumps chosen has to be able to withstand maximum curb pressure, maximum curb pressure at any point in their networks, and compliance with relevant topography and hydraulic analyses for the zones under consideration, according to the Department of the Army (1992).

Requirements of Waste Water Pumping Stations

Waste Water pumping stations has to be examined for their functional capacity during flooding, accessibility and capacity, the designs and locations of their wet well pumps to cope with grit accumulation, conformation to OSHA other safety regulatory requirements, appropriateness of all pumps in use namely wet/well/dry/well, submersible, suction lift, and screw pump, and provisions made for buoyancy (Waste Water Committee-Great Lakes Upper Mississippi River Board, 2004).

Construction materials required for Water and Waste Water plants to efficiently process and deliver the final product to consumers, has to meet establish specifications to ensure the prevention of galvanic actions as a result of dissimilar metals, and the threat from handling grease, oil, hydrogen sulphide and other corrosive chemicals, according to (Waste Water Committee-Great Lakes Upper Mississippi River Board, 2004).

Water and Waste Water plants are required to have (a) multiples of pumps with the same capacity at each location to ensure the maintenance of capacity flow during servicing or down times for any of units, (b) combined waste water or separate sanitary waste water systems to prevent clogging, (c) 3 inch OD pump openings, (d) 4 inch OD suction and discharge pipelines, (e) and the location of shut off valves and check valves on suction and discharge line at floor level respectively, according to Waste Water Committee-Great Lakes Upper Mississippi River Board (2004).

In situations where potable water is being brought to Waste Water plants, it is a requirement according to Section 56.23 which mandate that there should be no physical connections between both lines in order to prevent contamination, and plant operations has to ensure this is followed at all times, according Waste Water Committee-Great Lakes Upper Mississippi River Board (2004).

A requirement checklist for pump house provided by SPDEEAPEB (1985), emphasize how vital it was to ensure proper equipment and process management are achieved, when water is being delivered to target populations on a daily basis.

Listed as priority is the installation of a hatch with a minimum dimension of 800 mm* 900 mm, a pump pedestal of 0.1m, an inline free discharge pipe to the outside, check and flow valves calibrated based on the yield potential of the well, digital flow meter and recorder, pressure gauge installed upstream and downstream, water tight seals installed between pump base or submersible header and pump pedestal, a 25 m auxiliary opening, and air vents in the region of the well involved in the process.

Pumps Types and Requirements

Suction Lift Pumps Stations at water and waste water plants are required to meet specific pump priming conditions, whether self priming or vacuum priming, according to Section 42 of the regulations, and in cases where low lift and or high lift pumping units are to be installed, they have to be based on the appropriate intake structures they are connected to, according to, according Waste Water Committee-Great Lakes Upper Mississippi River Board (2004), as these structures first have to be equipped with protective coarse and fine screens, which work to exclude undesired objects from their source locations entering the processing system according to Public Corporation (2009).

According to Special Engineering Design and Equipment, Environmental Approvals and Project Engineering Branch(1093), two low lift pumps are required to be in place when raw water is to be treated, and both has to have low and high sensing devices installed on them in treated water storage locations, to ensure effective regulation of supplies.

Low lift pumps that has discharge rates less that of treatment station pumping units are required to be installed according SPDEEAPEB (1985), so as to prevent overflow during backwashing operations. \

With respect to high lift pumps, SPDEEEAPEB (1985) infers that they also are required to be installed in duplicate and be able to deliver the minimum volume requirement of the design maximum day desired level from similarly elevated storage locations under proficient pressure regulated systems to manage peak demand (< 690 kPa) and low period (> 279 kPa).

Sampling Conditions

In the sampling of liquids during waste management activities ASTM International (2012), recommend the installation of a peristaltic pump at all operating facilities, as it facilitate the collection of samples for analysis form multiple depths, mixes samples thoroughly, and is made of chemical reactant materials that can withstand viscous, abrasive, corrosive, high purity substances.

Pump Marketing Requirement

Sulzer (2012), is a global leader in pump design and manufacture and a company known for its state of the art product quality, performance, reliability, and technical innovation in marketing its products, highlighted the main requirements pump marketing companies should provide to their prospective customers engage in water transport and supply, desalination, and water reuse.

According to Sulzer (2012), the capacity of pumps, its maximum had available, services provided, quantity available for sale, pump type, and power requirements are all critical variables that should be provided to prospective customers, to facilitate the final decisions that will be made.

The case of a company in Rio Janeiro Brazil, according to Sulzer (2012), was illustrative, in that it had waste water that had to be lifted from a wet well to feed a treatment plant which had a capacity of 600, 000 /day and had to operate free of clogging. Sulzer (2012) supplied the company with 4 AP3V 700- 9900/.59 pumps, which had a capacity of 4817 /h, a head of 22 m and required 334 kW to transfer the raw sewage from the well to the treatment plant.

CONCLUSION

Pumping requirement will vary across the industrial global landscape with respect to the transfer and treatment of water and waste water processing operations, but plant managers has to use their specific situation to decide what will best meet their specific operations and will allow target populations to be supplied with the highest quality potable water even at the highest demand period.

Pump types and features, pipe diameter, safety requirements, the locations of check and flow valves, operating head, well yield, location of pressure gauges, area topography, the nature and composition of untreated waters and waste water, the intake structure, construction materials, sampling frequency and methodology, the location population being served, and the credibility of the supplier of pumps required, all play a significant role in the final product produced..

SPDEEAPED (1985) saw the importance of ensuring their engineers and technicians consistently pay close attention to its operational requirement by developing a set of guideline in 1985, so that present and future teams will always be equipped with technical information that will ensure their product delivery will be able to meet the standards expected by their consumers.

Works Cited

ASTM International. (2012). “ASTM D 7353-07 Standard Practice for the Sampling of Liquids in Waste Management Activities Using Peristaltic Pump” Retrieved from <www.astm.org/standard/D7353.htm > on 04/22/12. Electronic.

Department of the Army. “Water Supply: Pumping Stations Technical Manual 5-813-6” Headquarter Washington DC 1992. Retrieved from <www.armypubs.army.mil/eng/DR_apdftm5_813_9pdf > on 04/23/12. Electronic.

Public Water Corporation (2009). “Technical Guidelines for the Construction of Drinking Water Treatment Plant” Retrieved from <www.bsf-south-sudan.org/sites/default/files/ss+Tech+Guide–Water+Treatment+Plant.pdf > on 04/23/12. Electronic.

Special Engineering Design and Equipment, Environmental Approvals and Project Engineering Branch (1985) “Guidelines for the Design of Water Supply Systems for Small Residential Developments” Retrieved from <www.ene.gov.on.ca/stdprodconsumer/groups/lr@ene/@resources/documents/resource/std01_079673.pdf > on 04/23/12. Electronic.

Sulzer (2012). “Pumping Solutions for the Water Industry Sulzer Pump” Retrieved from <www.sulzerpumps.com/portaldata/9resource/brochures/water/waterindustry_en_E00610_2_2012.pdf > on 04/23/12 .Electronic.

Waste Water Committee of the Great Lakes-Upper Mississippi River Board. “Recommended Standards for Waste Water Facilities” Health Research Inc. Albany NY 2004. Retrieved from <www.10statestandards.com/wastewaterstandards.html> on 04/22/12. Electronic.