Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
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www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | NOVEMBER 2016 | 25 What is it? CarboPlus is a proven treatment for micropollutants such as pesticides (including metaldehyde), THM precursors and pharmaceuticals. It utilises the adsorption capacity of activated carbon to bring a compact solution to the growing problem of tackling hard to remove micro substances. Easy to operate, efficient, and simple to incorporate into an existing process stream, CarboPlus is being used within industrial wastewater as well as drinking water treatment systems. What is innovative about it? The most innovative aspect of CarboPlus is that it uses a fluidised bed of activated carbon within a combined contact and separation reactor together with a continual means of carbon replacement to remove micropollutants. The a 10-year period resulting in full site operation in 2010. What benefits does it bring? The system has delivered and exceeded in operation the anticipated removal rates across a range of pesticides and pharmaceuticals on clean water, industrial water and wastewater sites including the difficult-to-remove metaldehyde. The compact system size has reduced construction costs and enabled its installation alongside existing processes. It also uses little energy and boasts low or no chemical consumption - therefore making little impact on operational cost - and makes highly efficient use of media in terms of contact time and dosage flexibility. Who is using it at the moment? The CarboPlus process is used in more than 20 different sites in France with capacities from 0.3 to 72 MLD. Most recently it has been installed in a new plant near Nantes where it was inserted between existing processes with no interruption to water supply. SAUR is working with Capita to bring the process to the UK and interest is already being shown by a number of clients, including water companies concerned about metaldehyde. fluidised bed and carbon replacement approach allows CarboPlus to provide a simple and reliable solution because it maintains a controlled carbon adsorption and removal capacity within a reactor using familiar media. This approach also improves on contact time for a given amount of carbon and gives the ability to adjust the carbon contact time to suit seasonal variations in raw water quality. The simple hydraulics of the process allows water to pass through the fluidised bed of activated carbon separating naturally by gravity with little or no need for chemical usage, and with control and mechanical aspects constrained to carbon injection and removal. How it was developed? CarboPlus is a patented solution developed by the French utility group SAUR; as an operator itself, SAUR identified the growing knowledge and tightening standards on micropollutants in water and wastewater as both a business and consumer risk. To address this risk they started work to create a solution that met its needs of being reliable, cost efficient, and easy to operate with very low operational cost. Development of the process moved from laboratory to full-scale pilot over ● This month, we look at a technology developed in France which can remove micropollutants, including metaldehyde, from water CarboPlus Micropollutant removal solution L: A schematic of CarboPlus. R: The system in place in Nantes