Wednesday blog Wednesday, the 19th of June 2024

 

Nitrate removal

Only water treatment works in Buckinghamshire I investigated the removal innovative technology for the removal of nitrate from water for potable supply.

Anyone else enjoying the current round of Doctor Who?

Naturally as Dr Bigg, I do associate with the doctor and of course my son is the master. lol

😜 

PhD is in electro chemical reduction of contaminated water. I mean, reduction in the chemical sense rather than for example in the reducing the amount of something. sense. In chemistry reduction is the gain of electrons while oxidation is the loss of electrons. Learnt at school as  School as oil rig oxidation is loss reduction is gain.

Instead of tardis, this doctor travels in shipping containers

Not so much as with a thrum thrum thrum from from as the steady whirring of a Flatbed lorry,  lowering The pilot plant of an innovative technology onto of the unforgiven gravel of a water treatment works. Accompany buy an ill manner driver who insist it can’t be done. One of the less glamorous parts of being a research scientist is reasoning with Laurie drivers and the use of my influencing a delegation skills in allowing delivery of the pilot plant to a water treatment works in the first place. There’s always the treatment manager and several other parties on site, none of whom are on your side. 

It’s 4 am and I arrive in my little two seater sports car MG silver MG chosen because the boot is sufficiently large enough for a manhole key. Not sure why they call the manholes as I have been lifting these since I was a girl of I was 17 anyway when I worked working in a petrol station.

Today it is 4 am. I have my PhD and I once again opening a manhole. The same length I have a valve key 4 am is the only time I can operate this plant as a demand for water. It is an operational plant supplying water to the local area and the water is at its lowest at this time.

It’s quiet the deer out and there’s suspicion of light on Horizon

I do ring control to let them know I’m on site. This means that they would not for example react to alarms as I open doors and then enter the code to silence them once again.

There’s never was any answer, though. So I’m on my own.

This particular box of tricks it’s a technology that removes nitrate from water but then converts it to nitrogen gas. In this way there is no stream as nitrogen gas is a gas and is the main component of the atmosphere.

Nitrogen needs to be removed from the water because it is harmful to health and there are regulations controlling it.

Technologies, I’m researching after nitrate vulnerable zones. Regulations control strictly the level of nitrate in water discharged to the environment. In the environment nitrates affects the natural ecosystem and can lead to depletion of the oxygen in the water. This phenomenon, known as eutrophication, has negative consequences for biodiversity, fisheries and recreational activities.

So it’s a double whammy we need to remove nitrate from water intended for drinking supply as nitrate in drinking water is bad for your health especially for babies. And nitrate removed from the supply and cannot then be discharged to the environment because it’s helpful to the environment.

Essentially, the nitrate has has to go somewhere.

In addition, this is the driest part of England. Water resources are precious so minimising waste stream is also important.

That is where this particular piece of research comes in removing the nitrate from the water discharging it as to the atmosphere where it is harmless as at 80% nitrogen is already the main component of the atmosphere.

An agricultural area which uses nitrate for fertilising the soil. 

Six things

1 Safe potable water needs to be supplied to the population for drinking

2 nitrates in water are harmful to human health, especially infants

3 Nitrates in the environment are harmful to the environment

4 in an agricultural area, nitrates are added to the ground fields for growing crops. This enters water courses and ground water.

5, it’s a nitrate vulnerable zone so they’re restrict regulations about the discharge of nitrate to the environment

6 drinking water regulations strict limits to the level of nitrate in the drinking water

I do enjoy the logic problem. For example you need to cross the bridge that is guided the guard sleeps for 20 minutes a day and it takes 30 minutes across the bridge. How do you cross it?

Here’s another logic Problem for you

Nitrating water is helpful for health. We must remove it before supplying the water for drinking.

Having Removed the nitrate from the water we cannot discharge to the environment because it’s a nitrate vulnerable zone to prevent furcation the environment depleting oxygen in the river and this is an area in England and has scarcity. We don’t want a large volume of waste water stream either.

This is exactly the sort of problem. I spent my career resolving. I’m very proud of the process treatment plants are developed researched optimised implemented commissioned operated and the maintenance strategies then devised keeping carbon reduction in mind operational cost protection of the environment.

So many shipping containers in so many water treatment works. I’m rather like Doctor Who but with a shipping container instead of a tardis.

I generally appear at four in the morning in a silver MG, chosen because the boot is just large enough for a Valve key.

Solar power for the electricity. Wind power for electricity. Hydro power from the water in the pipes pushed from delivery pumps to power the nitrate plants.

One of my favourites was electro chemical conversion of nitrate in the concentrated waste stream nitrogen so that the waste no longer contained nitrate and the nitrogen harmlessly be released to the atmosphere, which is already 80% nitrogen.

Although an electrChemical process sounds power hungry, and so bad for the environment There is potential for the energy to be supplied from a renewable energy source such as solar power or wind turbines . There’s also the possibility of electricity generation from turbines within water mains as the water is driven through them by the high lift pumps that supply water to the surrounding area.

Let’s consider the electrical requirements for the conversion of nitrate nitrogen