High resolution measurements in the waste water industry: Case studies

In the water and wastewater industries, historic best engineering practice for quantification or characterisation of water or wastewaters involved grab-sampling campaigns. Lab measurements are then undertaken using standard methods techniques which have a considerable per sample cost.

These grab sampling techniques are often intended to capture representative samples of complex industrial and environmental processes, but may fail to do so if insufficient data points are collected compared to the inherent variability of the measured system.

An alternative to grab sampling methods is on line instrumentation. In this paper we demonstrate by way of case studies the advantage of using short term high frequency monitoring of wastewater applications in New Zealand and Australia.