Workshop Review

Visitors to WWEM 2008 were able to take their pick from a range of more than 60 different Workshop presentations over the two days in Telford.

Workshops Visitors to WWEM 2008 were able to take their pick from a range of more than 60 different Workshop presentations over the two days in Telford. With six rooms hosting the sessions, visitors were spoilt for choice as they listened to a variety of talks on all aspects of water, wastewater and environmental monitoring.
Among the most popular sessions included that given by WFS’ Ian Crowther on Secure Wireless Water Monitoring and in particular underwater radio frequency technology. He explained the benefits of this technology, including its ability to interface from water to air and also through ice.

Jon Shepherd from HACH LANGE presented a Workshop entitled ‘Energy Savings with Low Maintenance Ammonium Probes’ in which he described a number of case studies for the ‘NH4D’ ammonium probe. The NH4D sc sensor is designed to provide continuous trending of ammonium levels for process control including the nitrification process in the aeration tanks and lanes of wastewater treatment plants with less than 30% industrial waste. Jon described how the instrument has been employed at wastewater treatment plants to:

• lower operational costs
• optimise treatment processes
• ensure compliance with ammonium discharge consents
• issue alarms (by telemetry including SMS texts)

Users of the NH4D have commented that it provides them with an increased ability to identify illegal discharges upstream and to maintain discharge quality below consent levels. For example, inlet alarm conditions can be dealt with in a number of ways including flow management, dilution, chemical dosing and dormant tanks.
Remote and Unattended Monitoring of Heavy Metals was the focus of Knut Schroder’s Workshop. Knut, from Sensaqua, told delegates about the different kinds of measuring electrodes available, with homogeneous electrodes being preferred to film electrodes for heavy metals monitoring.
Martin Butterfield from Cogent Environmental also addressed the subject of heavy metals monitoring. Martin outlined a number of case studies including an application in the United States at which Cogent's OVA 5000 instrument provides continuous monitoring of Arsenic.
Commenting on the benefits of the system, Martin said, "Once the instrument was installed it became possible for the site laboratory to be closed outside working hours, which delivers substantial cost savings. Data feedback has enabled improvements in plant efficiency and substantially reduces the risk of discharge consent exceedence."
YSI Hydrodata received a great deal of interest in the ‘HydroSAM’ which featured in their Workshop entitled, ‘Raw Water Intake Monitors – a Lower Cost Alternative.’ The HydroSAM was developed to provide a more reliable, lower maintenance water quality monitoring system than the traditional ‘wall board’ systems that involve a complicated series of pipes and in-line sensors. The YSI Hydrodata Workshop explained the advantages that have been realised for continuous monitoring at raw water intakes.
Possibly one of the most exciting innovations at WWEM 2008 was outlined by David Vincent, a Director of Intellitect Water. David described a new technology that has been designed, patented and successfully trialled for monitoring water in pipe distribution networks. Importantly, the new technology includes the ability to measure chlorine accurately, without reagents and with a very low maintenance requirement. He explained that the ability to measure water quality remotely and continuously at multiple sites throughout the network provides water providers with highly valuable data with which to improve process efficiency, customer service and drinking water quality.
Dr Frank Honold of WTW spoke of the advantages of the Insitu probe for online monitoring of ammonium and nitrate in wastewater. He told delegates that users experienced no time delay of signals, low investment costs and optimised control.
The developing role of wireless communications for the transmission of environmental data was the main theme in a workshop presented by Simon Wills, Managing Director at OTT Hydrometry. Simon gave an overview of the wireless communication options that are available and showed recent trends towards GPRS and the inclusion of Internet based technologies. He also explained that data collection is moving from systems that poll to those that ‘push’ – i.e. those that issue data at preset intervals and/or following preset alarm criteria.
In order to exemplify the latest techniques, Simon logged on to a web site displaying real time data as it is telemetered from a network of 4 buoys that form an integral part of an environmental protection system for a large construction project in NE Donegal in the Republic of Ireland that provides early warning of potential pollution events, this demonstrated the value of live data on the web.
Camlab’s David Miller said: “It was a good show, our workshops were well attended and we took a good number of quality leads on the stand. With 24 attendees, the workshop presentation from Camlab and Insitu Inc, on Low Flow Sampling was very popular and hopefully will encourage the use of this technique in the future.”
Paul Williams, Sales Director at Aquaco, added: “Following Aquaco’s workshop ‘Rainwater and Grey Water Recycling Systems and Waste Water Treatment Systems’ the stand was inundated. We can honestly say that across the two days Aquaco achieved a record number of genuine sales leads.”