Municipal Wastewater Plants Will Spend $1.6 Billion for Air and Water Monitoring Equipment Next Year

Municipal wastewater plants will spend $1.6 billion for instruments and controls to monitor air and water pollutants next year. This is the latest forecast in Air & Water Pollution Monitoring World Markets published by the McIlvaine Company (USA).

East Asia will be the largest purchaser and account for more than one third of the total. This is due to the many new treatment plants being built to accommodate the urban migration in the region.

In the U.S. and Western Europe, most of the expenditures are related to efforts to automate and increase plant performance. For example, instruments to measure sludge dryness are allowing operators to reduce polymer costs along with providing a more consistent sludge. This results in lower fuel consumption in the sludge incinerator.

Municipal wastewater plants are served with sewer systems often stretching for many miles. Remote monitoring provided by Pentair Environmental and other suppliers helps avoid plugging, overflow and other problems. Monitoring is utilised for: Wastewater network investigations; Pump station control; Pipeline condition assessment; Overflow alarming; Source tracing; Leak detection.

Most of the investment will be in water-related monitoring. However 10 percent of the total will be for air monitoring.  Odor control is a major problem for wastewater plants. This requires periodic monitoring of the air emissions. Sewage sludge incinerators are equipped with stack gas continuous emissions monitors.