Pilot Studies

Rawdon has a fully functional, state of the art, water treatment pilot plant for use in municipal and industrial water treatability studies. The pilot plant is assembled in a thirty five foot fifth wheel trailer. The pilot process consists of chemical coagulation, hydraulic flocculation, dissolved air flotation (DAF) clarification and rapid sand filtration. The DAF unit is nominally rated for 40 gpm of clarified water production. The unit is equipped with a gravity filter rated at 7 gpm for pilot testing and a pressure filter rated at 30 gpm. With the pressure filter in operation, the unit becomes a fully functional water treatment plant capable of supplying potable water on a standby or emergency basis.

The treatment process is equipped with computer controlled chemical feed pumps and instrumentation including in line pH, temperature, turbidity, flow rates and filter differential head. A PLC based control system performs all functions of the routine plant operations. The PLC is linked to a PC which runs VTS, the operator interface for the system. This interface gives the operator access to all control functions and automatically logs all process variables for subsequent analysis and reporting.

The Rawdon pilot is also equipped with a field lab for the determination of water quality parameters such as turbidity, colour, alkalinity, pH, and metal concentrations (iron, manganese, aluminum). With these facilities, Rawdon is capable of conducting full-service pilot scale treatability studies for plant pre-design applications.