Wessex Water has established a need to reliably and continuously monitor effluent ammonia concentration at a number of key wastewater sites and have used the ProAm analyser manufactured by Pollution & Process
Monitoring (UK) Ltd. These sites all have an effluent consent of 5 mg/l or less and any failure to comply with the discharge consent could lead to hefty financial penalties under the OFWAT performance assessment.
Since the initial evaluation at the Poole WwTW site during November 2004 many other sites have now benefited from permanent Proam installations.
The Divisional Scientist comments "Ion selective devices are an excellent technology for wastewater applications. They are reliable and unaffected by influent variability. The Pro-Am ammonia analyser is compact, easy to operate and is self contained. The low cost of operation and accuracy of results has enabled us to make a number of changes to plant performance which has greatly reduced the risk of failure".
Already the instrument has proved invaluable providing the process scientists with crucial trending data identifying how upstream processes may be improved and ensuring compliance with the Environment Agency consent.