vendredi 27 décembre 2013

Hydrogen Sulfide Reduction In Waste Water Collection Systems

By Harriett Crosby


When organic material is digested in absence of oxygen in what is known as anaerobic digestion, it results to production of hydrogen sulfide gas among other products. This gas is colorless and has a characteristic of foul smell. Normally, this kind of bacterial activity occurs in sewers and swamps. It is no wonder sewers produce a bad smell like that of rotten eggs because of this gas. There is need for hydrogen sulfide reduction in the sewers as showcased in this article.

There are usually a lot of concerns among environmental specialists with the production of this gas in the sewage system. This is because it contributes greatly to the rust problems in the sewer structures and also people living near sewage systems always complain of odor problems. For people wondering how corrosion comes about, it results when the sulfide gas produced combines with water in the system resulting to formation of hydro sulfuric acid that corrodes infrastructure.

These negative effects of the gas to sewage system and the environment led to certain control measures to be devised. These measures were to reduce and ultimately control production of this gas. The first method of control is addition of a strong alkali such as magnesium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide to the waste water. The effect of this is increase of the sewer pH and thus limited formation of the sulfide gas.

The other method is chemical treatment where certain chemicals are released into the sewer. More often than not, chloride compounds are the ones usually fed into the system. Examples of these compounds include; calcium and sodium hypochlorite, ferric chloride or bleach. When any of these compounds are added to sewage, they lead to oxidation of sulfides hence the gas will not be formed.

But with this chemical treatment, certain requirements have to be met. First there needs to be a feed system established from which the chemicals are pumped into the waste water. This feed system might take some time and even money to be established. Another thing is that the feeding system needs to be monitored constantly to ensure it is working well. At all times, safety measures must always be considered.

For the rust problems, several measures exist to control this. The first one involves increased ventilation in sewer system to allow aerobic digestion to occur rather than anaerobic. The other measure is use of protective coatings when manufacturing sewer pipes and tanks. These coatings can be polythene linings, cement, vinyl, tar products and the do prevent corrosion of the infrastructure.

Yet another method of corrosion control is by spraying the crown and manhole. At the crown of a pipe is where rust is mostly at its worst because the acid collects on this area. The effect of this is weakening and collapse of the pipe. The agent that is sprayed on these structures is known as Sulfa Lock Gel and this one guards the surfaces from intense acid effects.

The last measure is through the use of a monitoring meter known as the liquid phase sulfide meter to measure amount of sulfide in wastes that come from industries. Therefore when the sulfides are above a certain measure, the wastes have to undergo pre treatment process first they are taken to the sewer system. From this article, we learn on the different measures of hydrogen sulfide reduction in waste water collection systems. Specialists are still researching on other advanced methods to curb this problem.




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