As we've reported lately - and of course, as most sustainability and energy management professionals know - the handling of water and wastewater is extremely energy intensive. Now, Fluence Corporation Limited has released its SmartAerator Tornado for industrial and municipal wastewater treatment facilities. The company says the SmartAerator Tornado can provide up to 50% annual energy savings for wastewater treatment facilities using Tornado Aerators - a significant benefit for industrial companies looking for every penny they can save in terms of energy costs, and for municipalities, particularly as infrastructure ages and more funds need to be allocated for improvement projects.
The SmartAerator Tornado automatically regulates aeration levels and remotely monitors the wastewater processing performance of the Tornado aerator. This proprietary technology is a system of controls, sensors and variable frequency drives designed to significantly reduce the amount of energy required to aerate wastewater. Designed to work with the Tornado aerator, this technology is sold as a retrofit kit or with new aerators. Ideal projects are those that require large horsepower aerators and projects with multiple aerators where energy savings would be significant.
Fluence says the anticipated payback period for a typical SmartAerator installation is about two years for projects with several, high-horsepower Tornados working on site.
The SmartAerator comes equipped with a dashboard for tracking and reporting aerator performance, monitoring the aeration process and transmitting wastewater analytics to supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and mobile devices. It constantly samples wastewater oxygen levels and other process parameters while regulating aeration intensity depending on the wastewater’s characteristics at any given time. This eliminates over-aerating and conserves power, saving significant energy costs.
Fluence offers an integrated range of services across the complete water cycle, from early stage evaluation, through design and delivery, to ongoing support and optimization of water-related assets, the company says. The group has core operations in North America, South America, China, the Middle East and Europe.
Don't Ignore the Water/Energy Connection
Eastman Chemical is one company that takes the water/energy connection seriously, having recently updated its energy management program to include water, a resource that previously stood as an independent target. The company's management has said the firm could not ignore link between water and energy. With that in mind, Eastman Chemical conducted a water assessment pilot at its Springfield, Massachusetts, plant in 2016 to identify potential projects, develop a process for assessing opportunities, and identify knowledge gaps, according to the company’s recent sustainability report, “Innovating with Purpose.” This year, the company is evaluating and implementing results of the study, while initiating a second study evaluating the reduction of municipal water at its Kingsport facility.
