On-line microwave total solids sensoring in sewage characterization.
We describe a novel application for a microwave on-line sensor to measure the total solids (TS) load entering a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) from slaughterhouse sewage and some sanitary wastewaters. Measuring this kind of wastewater stream is very challenging, because it contains a high, but varying organic load with nitrogen, phosphorus and microorganisms. The reliability of the measured signal was studied by comparison with laboratory analyses and a correlation is presented of TS-value with other parameters that are typically followed in a wastewater treatment process. The results suggest that on-line microwave sensoring could be used to monitor total solids in wastewater influent. Our results show that the on-line microwave sensor and laboratory reference analyses give similar results with a good correlation between the two techniques. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the total solids values correlate well with conductivity, total nitrogen and BOD(7) values but not with phosphorus, pH and temperature.
Poutiainen
H
H
Department of Environmental Science, University of Kuopio, Box 1627, Kuopio 70211, Finland. hannu.poutiainen@uku.fi
Laitinen
S
S
Juntunen
P
P
Heinonen-Tanski
H
H
D008872:Microwaves; D012722:Sewage / Q000737:chemistry*; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods
D012722:Sewage; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical