Wastewater Turbidity - How to Quantify Suspended Solids
Wastewater turbidity becomes a hindrance when treating wastewater.
Hence the treatment process involves elaborate steps of reducing turbidity first to allow the suspended particulates to settle and the natural organisms to then disintegrate the effluents.
In this article, I show you how you can determine the quantity of suspended solids in wastewater prior to eliminating it.
Various organic matter in wastewater, which can be present in the form of very fine suspended substances like silt or clay, can make the wastewater turbid.
They also take a long time to settle down.
Some types of these fine organic compounds in wastewater may be colored, coloring the wastewater through its dense concentrations or by being very soluble in the wastewater.
Some such soluble organic substances belong to the family of microscopic organisms, others may be slightly larger, Plankton for example.
They, along with the afore mentioned non organic substances lead to wastewater turbidity.
This turbidity in wastewater can be measured by passing a light through the container containing the sample of wastewater to make it impinge a detector that has a photoelectric characteristic.
Such a detector is kept at the opposite end of the light source.
An apparatus with such an arrangement is the Nephelometer.
It is used to measure the quantity of the suspended particulate matter in a given liquid suspension using a beam of light.
The source of light for measurement is shown from a lamp with a filament made of Tungsten.
This filament gets heated to high temperature and when emitting light is generally in the operating range of 2200 to 3000 degrees Kelvin.
The photo detector is kept at an angel of 90 degrees in the path of this light beam.
This beam of light is made to pass through a transparent container, usually glass, containing the wastewater sample.
The refracted light is then measured using the detector.
How much of the light that passes through the container is dependent on the reflectivity as well as the color, the density and the shape of the particulate matter suspended in the wastewater sample.
Under normal conditions 40 NTU = 40 JTU.
The Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU) is a standard measure adopted for measuring the wastewater turbidity, in this case matched with Jackson Turbidity Unit (JTU).
This equation of the values is disturbed if the turbidity varies.
Hence the treatment process involves elaborate steps of reducing turbidity first to allow the suspended particulates to settle and the natural organisms to then disintegrate the effluents.
In this article, I show you how you can determine the quantity of suspended solids in wastewater prior to eliminating it.
Various organic matter in wastewater, which can be present in the form of very fine suspended substances like silt or clay, can make the wastewater turbid.
They also take a long time to settle down.
Some types of these fine organic compounds in wastewater may be colored, coloring the wastewater through its dense concentrations or by being very soluble in the wastewater.
Some such soluble organic substances belong to the family of microscopic organisms, others may be slightly larger, Plankton for example.
They, along with the afore mentioned non organic substances lead to wastewater turbidity.
This turbidity in wastewater can be measured by passing a light through the container containing the sample of wastewater to make it impinge a detector that has a photoelectric characteristic.
Such a detector is kept at the opposite end of the light source.
An apparatus with such an arrangement is the Nephelometer.
It is used to measure the quantity of the suspended particulate matter in a given liquid suspension using a beam of light.
The source of light for measurement is shown from a lamp with a filament made of Tungsten.
This filament gets heated to high temperature and when emitting light is generally in the operating range of 2200 to 3000 degrees Kelvin.
The photo detector is kept at an angel of 90 degrees in the path of this light beam.
This beam of light is made to pass through a transparent container, usually glass, containing the wastewater sample.
The refracted light is then measured using the detector.
How much of the light that passes through the container is dependent on the reflectivity as well as the color, the density and the shape of the particulate matter suspended in the wastewater sample.
Under normal conditions 40 NTU = 40 JTU.
The Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU) is a standard measure adopted for measuring the wastewater turbidity, in this case matched with Jackson Turbidity Unit (JTU).
This equation of the values is disturbed if the turbidity varies.
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