Troubleshooting

We strongly believe and encourage our customers to develop their expertise and their capacity to solve their own common problems.

However, it may happen that some issues are more complex to solve and require external assistance. Our troubleshooting services to the operation include:

  • Emergency troubleshooting on-site
  • Audit
  • Toxicity testing to activated sludge

Emergency on-site assistance

It may happen that the process deteriorates very quickly and becomes out of control with risk of exceeding environmental regulations or bring the company to reduce or stop production. This situation is very complex and many times our presence was required on-site in emergency to help the operating team to regain control of the process.

Upon receiving a call for an emergency, an accelerated problem-solving process is put forward to define the problem, be aware of the short-term risks for the company and establish an action plan to reduce these risks.

If you need more information about this service, contact us.

Audit

MCR specialty since 1995 are the operating problems related to the world of wastewater treatment. We have developed a unique expertise to solve some very complex problems and over the expertise we have developed tools to help diagnose problems and find solutions to the following problems:

  • Primary and secondary clarifiers settling problems.
  • Proliferation of filamentous bacteria
  • Loss of capacity or performance in sludge dewatering
  • Problem of coagulation / flocculation / flotation
  • Effluent treatment treatability
  • Final effluent toxicity to trout and / or daphnia

We also offer other expertise to help our customers in their operations:

  • Monitoring program review and database organization
  • Process Control plan and key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • Management and nutrient dosage control

We offer three (3) types of audits adapted to different needs for our customers:

  • Quick audit
  • Process audit
  • Treatment plant general audit

Quick audit

This type of audit is usually done by one person and two days at the site and is usually focused on a particular problem experienced by the company for some time.

The goal is to quickly identify potential causes either in the operation, to the equipment, or monitoring program and laboratory testing. An action plan results from this activity, which may or may not arise to additional activities.

If you need more information about this service, contact us.

Process audit

This type of audit is usually done when a client needs to increase its process capacity or if he faced repeatedly to environmental exceedances or risks of environmental exceedances.

The objective is to thoroughly review the operations and performance of the treatment and propose an action plan to upgrade equipment or to make improvement to operation.

The audit is usually done over five days on site and generally focuses on a detailed review of the operation and performance of the various process equipment, database, monitoring program and laboratory procedures.

A thorough analysis of operating data and design parameters is done to establish the limit and residual treatment capacity of treatment facilities, the needs of additional treatment capacity and to specify the range of values ​​for Key performance indicators (KPI).

If you need more information about this service, contact us.

Treatment plant general audit (equipment/operation/risks)

This type of audit is generally required when a customer wants an operational risk assessment of its wastewater treatment works. This is the traditional audit focused on the equipment, works and operational documentation available from the company. No testing with our diagnostic equipment is provided for this type of mandate.

The objective of the audit is to highlight all the elements that pose risks to the company, opportunities for improvement and prioritize actions to correct or reduce the identified risks.

The audit is usually done by one person over 4-5 days on site and consists of 3 parts:

  • Part #1 Design, structures and equipment
  • Part #2 Operation and control procedures
  • Part #3 Monitoring program and laboratory measurements

If you need more information about this service, contact us.

Toxicity testing to activated sludge bacteria

The use of new chemicals or existing product dosage changes in your production pose potential risks to biological treatment processes.

Bacteria, even if they are aerobic or anaerobic, can’t treat everything. Some chemicals may be toxic or inhibitory to their bioactivity. A major loss of activity can cause a complete malfunction of biological treatment with the consequences one can imagine on the final effluent results.

So why take the risk when the technological tools are available to quickly assess the impact of these products on the bacteria in your treatment. The biomass toxicity analysis is performed by respirometry and based on the OECD and ASTM
guidelines. The results are presented so that it is easy to transpose the results in quantity used
on a real basis.

To date more than thirty customers have used our services to test more than 200 products before use in their production.

Toxicity biomass testing by respirometry will answer the following questions:

  • Does the proposed chemicals are toxic or not to your biological process?
  • In the affirmative:
    • At what concentration 50% of the biological activity (EC-50) is inhibited?
    • What is the inhibition threshold (IT) from which the biological activity is beginning to be
      affected?

With these data in hand we are able to translate these values ​​into the actual amount of products in the effluent. From there you will be able to make the right decisions about the potential risks of using these products.

If you need more information about this service or want an example of respirometric toxicity report, contact us.

Tracer study for lagoons

Tracer study with rhodamine WT has several practical applications in the field of wastewater treatment. MCR used this tool since 1995 and has conducted several evaluation projects of lagoons short-circuiting and flow measurements.

To make these services we have the Trilogy fluorometer from Turner and all the necessary equipment to inject meter rhodamine and sampled it at various points.

Short-circuiting in basin is a very common cause of treatment efficiency losses. Before considering a wastewater treatment plant expansion with the costs engendered by such work, it may be interesting to check beforehand if they can be optimized. If so, significant savings can beings realized.

The tracer study is designed to provide very accurate information on basin short- circuiting. Based on the results, it can be established by calculation key analysis parameters of the basin's hydraulic (see example screenshot below).

After analyzing the results from the previous step, we are able to suggest corrective measures including:

  • Adding and positioning of curtain walls to increase retention time and treatment
    capacity
  • Adding mixers at specific points
  • Changing the layout of the aeration system if possible.

If you need more information about this service or want an example of tracer study report contact us.

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