what is a wastewater treatability study and how does it work?

 what is a wastewater treatability study and how does it work?

A wastewater treatability study is a study or a test that tells us if the wastewater can be treated and how it needs to be treated. If the study is done correctly, it will clearly identify the problem you’re seeing in your wastewater stream, helping ensure the proper treatment solutions are considered.

Let’s just say, for example, that a plant processes metals—maybe a metal plating facility like a chrome plater or zinc plater—and all of the sudden, they realize residual metals are present in their wastewater, which are prohibited to discharge in just about any receiving watershed or municipality.

The company performing the study would start by taking a sample of their wastewater, analyzing it (called a characterization study) so they can identify what they think is the problem through analytical means.

Once the treatability study is complete and the problem is identified, sometimes a plant will opt to test different solutions by initially using some conventional technologies to remove the contaminants from the solution.

Once they establish that they can removed the contaminants successfully, they will then scale up the scope of the technology to sufficiently handle the full scale of the process. 

keep in mind that there is usually more than one treatment available for your problem. A reputable company will perform the treatability study and recommend different solution for you.