Effluent Pump Control

Automated effluent pump control system to smooth flow and increase treatment plant efficiency and throughput.

One of the main problems facing the effluent treatment plant was the inability to deal effectively with large changes in the incoming effluent flow rates. Despite the use of buffering tanks in their reception area, if the increased volume was not promptly passed on to the neutraliser, the tanks could overflow.

The existing system performed this control by turning on and off three large kestner pumps. This simple pump control mechanism, however, had the effect of creating problems in the neutralisation and filtering processes as the volume passing through would change radically as each effluent pump was started and stopped.

The answer was to provide finer control of the three effluent pumps through an inverter and logic to control which pumps were running and the required variable speed of one of the pumps.

The logic also allowed for the pre-emptive priming of the pumps and recovery actions in the event of a pump failure.

The end result was a much smoother flow through to the neutraliser which led to an improvement in the filter bed efficiency.

The Prodigy based system also monitors a number of Allen Bradley PLCs which allows the effluent pump data to be viewed in conjunction with the rest of the effluent treatment plant and to provide more comprehensive alarming facilities.

If you have an effluent pump control application and would like more information please contact us.