Water and Wastewater Process Consulting: Enhance Your Wastewater Treatment Plant’s Efficiency with On-Site Engineering Consultants

May 26, 2023

As a manufacturer or someone that occupies a space in the industrial sector, your process will likely create byproducts. In many cases, these are water or wastewater that will be regulated on a local, state or federal level. At McFadden Engineering, we realize that achieving environmental compliance can be challenging with your expertise focused on other areas of your organization. McFadden Engineering excels in providing a streamlined process through safe, cost-effective and innovative solutions while helping your organization achieve compliance. 

Wastewater treatment plants include numerous individual treatment processes within the overall treatment train. Each of these individual processes has optimum operating conditions that allow them to efficiently handle the specific parameters which the process is designed to treat. The misalignment of one of these parameters can result in a treatment process that is costly and difficult to maintain. In a worst-case scenario, your wastewater process can fail completely and potentially lead to environmental compliance issues and poor effluent water quality.

At McFadden Engineering, we offer consulting services to your organization providing the ability to conduct an analysis and review your current process, access equipment and implement process optimization.

Process Optimization

The first part of wastewater treatment process optimization includes a thorough evaluation of the process parameters that affect your wastewater treatment process. During this evaluation, our team of engineers and wastewater operators will assess lab data to detect how the plant is treating the wastewater. Additional testing and analysis can be conducted to evaluate the performance of the individual processes in the wastewater treatment facility. After we complete a thorough evaluation of your current process parameters, we can conduct an equipment analysis and test other components of your plant’s process.

Equipment Operation Analysis

A typical approach to equipment review involves three main objectives: conducting an equipment audit, identifying equipment issues and developing a plan to address the identified equipment faults. When equipment is evaluated by our team, we most often look at the yearly maintenance schedule to determine if the equipment is operating at its optimum level.  An equipment audit review is an integral part of any organization’s wastewater treatment plan. Our equipment review findings can give us a glimpse into your plant’s wastewater treatment facility process and identify ways we can implement, upgrade or benchmark your plant’s process optimization. Based on the findings, McFadden Engineering can develop a plan for operational adjustments, equipment upgrades as well as possible additions to the treatment process.

Overall Operation Assessment

Performance assessment is an integral tool for wastewater treatment plants to operate on a cost-effective and sustainable basis. After the necessary wastewater treatment facility parameters have been evaluated and an action plan has been developed and implemented to address the outstanding equipment needs, our team will assess the wastewater plant operation. This includes a thorough review of monthly reporting to regulatory agencies and daily lab data, if available. In addition, maintenance logs and equipment history are usually very helpful in evaluating issues. Our team will also develop a list of priorities to determine which plant objectives to tackle first. In some instances, recommendations could include additional site training for the facility’s operator and staff.

Throughout this process, it’s imperative that our personnel interact with your plant’s operational team to maintain a pulse on your plant’s progress with the goal of achieving efficient and smooth-running system operation.

Conclusion

All wastewater treatment facilities strive to reach their maximum outputs while maintaining an efficient operation. Optimization can take many different forms, meaning anything from hiring additional wastewater operators to incorporating additional treatment processes to meet the overall needs of the facility. We’re here to serve as allies for your wastewater treatment plant to help you achieve efficiency and meet regulatory compliance.

For more information about McFadden Engineering’s Facility Management and Operations services, contact us for a site visit.