The Challenge
- Belt press struvite cleaning required frequent, labour-intensive high-pressure work
- Heavy struvite encrustation covered the drum and other belt press surfaces
- Each of the plant’s five belt filter presses experienced scale buildup
- Operators needed 3,500 psi water to loosen small pieces of hard scale
- Frequent scale removal placed a substantial labour burden on plant staff
The Solution
One HydroFLOW® i Range unit was installed at the Tulsa Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant, at the pump discharge, 50 ft upstream of an Andritz belt filter press on a six inch ductile iron line running 120 gpm at 12 psi, and monitored from 17 February to 31 May 2017 with CH2M verifying the trial. The cleaned drum surface stayed free of new struvite for the full 90 days, while heavily encrusted areas thinned noticeably and some deposits could be scraped back to bare metal for the first time. Power washing became markedly less labour-intensive.
