Options and limits of quantitative and qualitative online-monitoring of industrial discharges into municipal sewage systems

Abstract

In some cities, industrial enterprises' discharges into municipal sewage systems have a major impact on the quantity and quality of inflows to the municipal treatment plants. In many cases, industrial discharges stand out on account of the great fluctuations in their volumetric rates of flow, pollution loads and temperatures. As a result, these discharges put a great strain on the sewage system, the treatment plant, and ultimately the receiving waters. The enterprises concerned have to pay the treatment plant operators fees based on the load and/or volume discharged. In most cases, qualitative monitoring operations merely consist of spot checks. This means that continuously surveillance is not possible and infringements of the permissible limit values are only discovered by accident. If impermissible discharges are carried out that may be susceptible to causing a treatment plant failure, the rapid initiation of countermeasures is not possible. Hence, spectrometer probes and mobile flowmeters were used in order to determine volumetric rates of flow, COD concentrations, and ultimately the loads discharged. The possibilities for, and limits to, online monitoring as well as shortcomings of spot-checks are discussed in the course of this paper, which also includes an uncertainty analysis.

Assessing Emissions from Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Based on Temporal High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry Data

“…Here, fluctuating discharges from pharmaceutical batch production were examined; however, as they are mostly linked to cleaning activities, intermittent emissions are characteristic for other industrial sectors as well. 49,50 Future studies that utilize this approach should provide further insights into its general applicability.…”

“…The intensity spread threshold >10 worked well to detect time patterns that represent industrial discharges but would need to be adapted for other WWTPs with different hydraulics. Here, fluctuating discharges from pharmaceutical batch production were examined; however, as they are mostly linked to cleaning activities, intermittent emissions are characteristic for other industrial sectors as well. , Future studies that utilize this approach should provide further insights into its general applicability.…”

A real-time control strategy for separation of highly polluted storm water based on UV–Vis online measurements – from theory to operation

“…The probe utilised features basic calibration based on extensive readings provided by the manufacturer. Individual calibration is possible, and should be taken into account in every application (Hoppe et al, 2009). The main reason for this is the wide and dynamic range of concentrations resulting from the different dry weather phases, precipitation intensities, seasonally-induced influences, etc..…”

“…The P-RTC system design presented above does not (yet) represent a "normal" standard solution. Moreover, every measuring point presents individual requirements (Gruber et al, 2006;Hoppe et al, 2009). Taking all the above-mentioned requirements into account, compared with the alternatives • Channelling of the stream water through a separate channel…”

“…A parameter that is representative of the degree of storm water pollution is wastewater turbidity, which can be recorded exactly enough by photometric means and which, by means of calibration and correlation, enables the total suspended solids (TSS) to be determined (Hoppe et al, 2009;Lacour et al, 2009). As regards storm water pollution, heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbons, a substantial portion of which are adsorbed onto solids, constitute a major problem.…”