Tuesday, December 24, 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.

With the production of the gas in sewer lines, environmental specialists usually worry about the odor and corrosion troubles. People who live near sewer lines often complain of the odor issue while the municipal usually worries about infrastructure destruction through corrosion. This usually results when water in the system mixes with the gas forming hydro sulfuric acid that corrodes the surfaces.

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.

Chemical treatment is the other way of control used by specialists. The chemical compounds used mostly are chlorine compounds such as bleach, ferric chloride, sodium and calcium hypochlorite. When any of these are added to the sewer system, work by oxidizing sulfides hence the gas will not be formed at all.

However this addition of chemical compounds can be challenging when there is no pumping post from which the chemicals are fed into the system. Therefore a chemical feed system should be established to make this process easier. The feed system should also be monitored to ensure effective treatment system. Safety measures are usually considered when carrying out this chemical treatment.

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.

Lastly, a monitoring instrument called the liquid phase sulfide meter has been formulated to help in observing sulfides levels in industrial wastes. If the instrument shows the sulfide to be higher than the wanted amount, the waste undergoes pre treatment before its release to the waste water collection system. All in all, these strategies on hydrogen sulfide reduction have helped a lot in control of the negative effects of the gas. But specialists are still coming up with other methods to manage this issue more effectively.




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