Temporary filtration systems are often used to help keep equipment online during routine maintenance projects or emergency jobs. Whatever the circumstance, to ensure your filtration system is properly designed for maximum effectiveness, here are 5 questions to answer before starting your project.
- What is in the water?
- How much water needs to be treated?
- How fast is the water flowing?
- How long will the system be in use?
- How clean does the water need to be?
1. What Is In The Water?
Prior to designing a temporary filtration system, it’s necessary to know what is in the water that is going to be treated. Since many contaminants are not visible to the naked eye, a water test is required.
A water analysis test can be performed at a lab or by a Rain for Rent sales professional at the job site. The test will reveal the NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Unit) of the suspended solids in the fluid. This information can then be used to create a distribution analysis which provides information about the size and concentration of particles in the fluid. The higher the concentration of suspended solids in the water, the higher the turbidity is.
Identifying particle sizing and concentration measurements enables you to design your system with the most appropriately sized filtration equipment.
2. How much water needs to be treated?
The next question that must be answered to properly size a temporary filtration system is, what is the volume of water to be treated? The volume influences decisions about the number of bags or cartridges, chemicals, or media that may be required. This information helps you plan for spent media disposal so that the system can continue to perform uninterrupted.
3. How fast is the water flowing?
All filtration equipment has optimum flow rate and pressure operating ranges, so the system must be designed to handle the appropriate flow and load of the influent water.
If the flow rate is too fast or too slow, the filtration equipment may not operate as designed. This can lead to system failures or cause the effluent to not meet discharge requirements.
4. How long will the system be in use?
Next, the time frame in which the temporary filtration system will be in use needs to be determined? This is important so that you can plan for service and maintenance intervals that the filtration equipment may require. Regular maintenance and service are necessary to ensure the filtration system operates as designed and for the expected duration of the project.
5. How "clean" does the water need to be?
It is important to keep sight of the end goal of the project. Knowing the discharge requirements for the treated water will make sure system is designed to meet your specific requirements. Discharge requirements could include maximum NTU, a pH range, maximum flow rate, or other site specific requirement.
Knowing discharge specifications is crucial to the design of the system. This information is required in order to utilize the most appropriate equipment, filtration media, and/or chemicals.
Rain for Rent, is Your Temporary Filtration Project Specialist!
Prior to designing a temporary water filtration system, ask yourself the five questions above to ensure you get a properly designed system that will help you remain operational. They will help determine the size of the system, filtration method, and the maintenance requirements for the system.
Rain for Rent has decades of experience designing and installing temporary filtration systems. Our engineers can help ensure you get the right-sized system for your budget. Our teams have worked on many filtration projects and have saved companies millions of dollars in lost production and revenue. To get started on your temporary water filtration project, we invite you to contact Rain for Rent today. You can also contact us to perform an onsite water analysis test to help identify what contaminants need to be removed.