Unit Process Analysis pH - Fall 2019

Floc pH — Justin Lee, Jena Rozanski, Rafaella Bruzual

ABSTRACT:

The Unit Process Operations pH subteam wanted to explore the performance of the AguaClara sedimentation tank as a function of pH. Filtration within the sedimentation tank is complex and the performance is often a factor of floc blanket. When the coagulant dosage exceeds a certain amount, the pH probe will be coated with coagulant, leading to inaccurate pH measurements within the plant. Therefore, the team wanted to determine this coagulant dosage and use that value as the constant coagulant dosage for all experimental trials. The team hopes to use this information to uncover new insights on how filtration performance changes in different pH ranges.

StaRS Filter Theory - Fall 2019

Wenjie Lu, Claire Kenwood, Kelly Ly

ABSTRACT:

StaRS (Stacked Rapid Sand) Filtration is crucial to the water treatment process. As one of the last steps in AguaClara’s water treatment, StaRS filters are responsible for removing the last of the unwanted particles. In order to operate effectively under EPA standards, the filters must reduce the turbidity to 0.3 NTU or less. In efforts to better refine the AguaClara filters, variables such as grain size, the height of the active zone, coagulant dosage will be tested in order to increase the failure time. At the beginning of experimentation, the Fall 2019 StaRS sub-team will focus specifically on the grain size.

Fluoride - Fall 2019

Fluoride Auto — Sarah Huang, Cindy Jin, Melissa Louie, Emily Yueh

Abstract:

The World Health Organization estimates that globally over one million people face adverse health consequences due to fluoride contamination of drinking water. The current state of fluoride removal technology is not suitable for water treatment plants, and continuous fluoride removal systems do not exist. The Fluoride team aims to develop a cheap and efficient apparatus to reduce ionic fluoride from contaminated water to a safe level. The Fall 2019 team hopes to redesign the flocculation process to optimize the adsorption of fluoride to polyaluminum chloride (PACl) coagulant and the sedimentation process to minimize PACl-fluoride complexes in the effluent, ultimately producing potable water.

Sensor Development - Fall 2019

Sonu Kapoor, Saul Bernaber, Rishik Zaparde

Abstract:

Sensor Development's goal is to develop affordable sensors with readily available materials to monitor and report water quality in the water treatment processes in AguaClara plants and labs. In Fall 2019, the subteam worked on two different projects that were slight modifications from the previous semester. The subteam worked on a second prototype of the submersible Sludge Blanket Detector. Additionally, the subteam also started designing a low-cost turbidimeter that would measure the amount of dissolved organics as well as turbidity.

Humic Acid, Floc/Sed Model - Fall 2019

Lawrence Li, Maya Shanti, Carolyn Wang

Abstract:

The Fall 2019 Humic acid subteam seeks explore the relationship between optimal coagulant dosages and effluent absorbance. Past teams have tested optimal concentration for removing HA. Based on previous work, the optimal coagulant concentration appears naround 1.5 mg/L. For this semester, the team plans to test more coagulant concentrations and humic acid concentration and find the optimal dosage to lower the absorbance of the effluence. The AccuView spectrophotometer will be used to measure the effluent absorbance and measure the efficiency of removing color. The concentrations of HA and coagulant is set based on the data collected from water plants.