Pairing a pilot plant to a direct filtration water treatment plant

Abstract

This paper outlines experiments that were conducted to establish that statistically equivalent intermittent and finished water quality was demonstrated between pilot treatment trains and a corresponding full-scale plant (FSP). First, equivalence was successfully established between the two pilot trains using paired t tests to confirm that the two trains were producing statistically equivalent water quality (e.g., pH, turbidity) while operating under identical operational and process conditions. Secondly, hypothesized mean differences and paired t tests were effectively applied to confirm the water quality achieved following each treatment phase in the pilot plant mimicked the corresponding treatment process in the FSP. Successive trials demonstrated equivalence in multiple water quality parameters throughout the two treatment scales, including pH, UV254, total organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon, alkalinity, and turbidity. The validation process demonstrated that the pilot plant has the ability to reproduce water quality outcomes from the FSP and that the results of the pilot facility are representative of process changes that will optimize the FSP performance.