New Auto-Clean Optical Dissolved Oxygen Monitor Lowers Carbon Emissions in Wastewater Treatment Plants

Specialist electrochemical sensor manufacturer Analytical Technology Inc (ATi) (USA) announces that its recently launched optical Q45D Dissolved Oxygen Monitor with Auto-Clean System reduces energy consumption in wastewater treatment plants. The innovative monitor is designed to provide reliable oxygen measurements in aeration processes and reduces maintenance requirements via the self-clean facility. Using a clean monitor such as the Q45D in wastewater treatment processes produces highly accurate results and lowers carbon emissions by reducing the amount of energy consumed.

In order to minimise carbon emissions, wastewater treatment plants require dissolved oxygen monitors capable of producing consistent and accurate readings. Unreliable monitors providing false readings can lead to a 12-15% increase in electricity costs per parts per million (ppm) error. To ensure monitor reliability, it is important to keep the sensor clean, as poorly maintained monitors can over-aerate, producing inaccurate measurements and wasting energy. However, maintaining manual and flow-based control systems can prove expensive and these systems require regular cleaning to ensure optimum levels of accuracy. Using an energy-efficient system such as Analytical Technology’s Q45D Dissolved Oxygen monitor can result in energy savings of up to 25%.

The Q45D system is also the only optical dissolved oxygen monitor to incorporate a fully integrated automatic cleaning system. This innovative self-clean system uses high pressure blasts of air to remove any material that builds up on the membrane, preventing inaccurate readings and reducing maintenance. The Auto-Clean system can be programmed at user-defined intervals from once per hour to once per day. When the sensor is kept clean it reads at accuracy levels of better than 0.1ppm meaning energy costs are lower as energy is not wasted on producing false or repeated readings.

Recognising that customers have diverse measuring requirements, Analytical Technology’s Q45D Dissolved Oxygen monitor is available with a choice of two sensors: traditional galvanic or optical. The galvanic sensor uses a robust 5 mil Teflon membrane which acts as a barrier to allow molecular oxygen to diffuse into the reaction cell where it is reduced at the working electrode, producing a small current that is proportional to the oxygen concentrate. The optical system uses a florescence quenching technique to measure dissolved oxygen.

Dr Michael Strahand, General Manager (Europe) at Analytical Technology comments “A reliable and accurate dissolved oxygen monitor is key to reducing both energy waste and costs in wastewater treatment plants. The Q45D monitor ensures accurate results, better process control and with the self-cleaning feature the monitor is near maintenance-free. The user-friendly settings and option of two sensors enable the monitor to produce precise readings in the most demanding situations, making it extremely versatile in assisting plants to reduce their carbon footprint.”