By always knowing the TOC levels throughout a drinking water treatment plant, a utility can avoid overdosing chemicals and creating costly excess waste. Plant optimization is no longer just about turbidity.

Process Optimization

Municipalities today not only must comply with the USEPA’s Safe Drinking Water Act regulations; they also must control costs in their plant treatment processes. To help achieve the right balance, many drinking water plants are using total organic carbon (TOC) monitoring and process optimization to produce high quality water while also achieving significant cost reductions.

Why TOC for Process Optimization?

The USEPA Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproduct Rule (D/DBPR) attempts to limit exposure of harmful byproducts in drinking water that form from the interaction of a water source’s naturally occurring organics or TOC, and a municipal plant’s disinfectant process. The D/DBPR not only sets limits for the disinfection byproducts (DBPs), such as trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAA5), but also establishes a TOC percentage removal requirement. Many water utilities use a conventional or direct filtration treatment process, which uses coagulants to remove TOC. The USEPA uses the term "enhanced coagulation" to define the process of obtaining improved removal of TOC, also called DBP precursors, by conventional treatment in order to limit DBP formation.

Because coagulant dosage is a function of TOC concentration, continuous monitoring of TOC can help utilities optimize treatment practices and chemical addition. This results in less waste and sludge, along with lower chemical and sludge removal costs. The Sievers 5310 C On-Line has helped many municipalities reduce their chemical usage and costs.

Municipalities today not only must comply with the water quality regulations; they also must control costs in their plant treatment processes. To help achieve the right balance, many drinking water plants are using total organic carbon (TOC) monitoring and process optimization to produce high quality water while also achieving significant cost reductions.

Many water utilities use a conventional treatment process, which uses coagulants to remove TOC. Because coagulant dosage is a function of TOC concentration, continuous monitoring of TOC can help utilities optimize treatment practices and chemical addition. This may result in less waste and sludge, along with lower chemical and sludge removal costs. The Sievers 5310 C Laboratory and On-Line TOC Analyzers have helped many municipalities optimize their treatment process, reducing their chemical usage and costs.