TRADE WASTE MONITORING

Managing the discharge of commercial effluent is now a priority in every responsible company whether they are large or small.

Data Acquisition Networks (DAN) has been supplying monitoring equipment for trade waste management systems since 2005. Typically, these systems monitor the volume of trade waste discharge, send alarms and take ‘local action’ when allowable limits are approaching.

Food companies for example, normally have a contract with water authorities enabling them to discharge a prescribed amount of treated trade waste into the water system during any 24-hour cycle. Companies that exceed the contracted volume of waste during their cycle are subject to fines and penalties.

When fitted to a waste management plant the DM01 supplied by Data Acquisition Networks constantly monitors the flow rate and the volume of trade waste discharge within the 24-hour cycle as well as any other parameters that need to be monitored. The system is updated as often as the user requires, normally every 30 minutes and reports the average, maximum and the minimum for each measured variable. The food company can set the DAN system to send alarms to as many as 5 mobile phones and 5 email addresses when say 90% of the trade waste volume allowable has been reached and if say 95% is reached within the 24-hour cycle DM01 can switch on a pump that will divert the treated waste into a holding tank for discharge during a subsequent 24-hour cycle. Other alarm conditions can be set on any of the other measured variables.

One DAN customer needed to deal with the problem of high fat trade waste. The company had a contract enabling them to discharge an agreed volume of treated waste to a specified BOD level, during any 24-hour cycle, seven days a week. On several occasions they exceeded the discharge volume but they avoided a fine on the basis they installed a DAN unit capable of sending alarms and also capable of diverting excess volumes of effluent to a holding tank. Since installing the DAN unit in 2005 the company has had no recurrence of the problem and the company’s trade waste has been successfully monitored and managed 24/7.