Powerstax system used for wastewater treatment

Powerstax and its partner DP Energy have provided a power solution for an electrochemical water-treatment system used for removal of dissolved and suspended contaminants from waste-water streams.

The development system has successfully completed a commercial-scale pilot trial at the UK wastewater treatment works of a multinational manufacturer.

The system has been developed to treat effluent from the manufacturer's paintwork department, specifically reducing phosphate concentration in the waste water.

Electro-coagulation technology is used to remove phosphates and reduce landfill more effectively than traditional chemical treatment.

By removing the requirement for chemical dosing and producing a smaller quantity of sludge for disposal, the technology offers major environmental and economic benefits.

The custom-designed 20V DC/500A 19in rack-mounted HF Power Source provided the end user with reversible current flow.

The power supply offers external control of output voltage and current and output monitoring using 0-10V isolated analogue signals.

Requiring a three-phase, three-wire supply (public low-voltage network) input voltage of 400V AC, the power supply has a power factor of more than 0.94 at full load and efficiency of more than 88 per cent (after power factor).

Full protection features as standard include output-current protection with internal electronic control of current limit and short-circuit protection.

Front-panel LEDs indicate power on, unit on, over-temperature, low-current alarm, under voltage and over voltage.

External control is provided for enable/run (stop/start), reverse output and alarm (trip) reset.

A range of alarm signals is available to provide information to central control systems including low current, on/standby, mains on and enable, over voltage, over current, high temperature, polarity normal and polarity reverse.

The rack-mountable unit has dimensions of 482.6 x 394.1mm x 212.7mm and an ambient operating temperature range of 0 to +40C.

Good results were achieved at the waste-water treatment plant, with up to 95 per cent phosphate removal and up to 70 per cent landfill reduction due to lower sludge volumes.

Other benefits of the technology include reliability of materials supply and improved control of the process.

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