Wastewater Treatment Plant Safety Risks
In recent years, with the rapid development of the economy and technology, more and more wastewater has been generated in people’s daily lives and production processes, and wastewater treatment capacity has also been continuously expanding. However, this rapid expansion has led to increasingly prominent gas safety risks.
Seasonality is a major pattern in the occurrence of wastewater treatment plant accidents, with May to September being the peak period for accidents. Major accidents include poisoning, suffocation, explosions, drowning, and falls.
Large quantities of volatile toxic and harmful gases exist in inlet channels or pipes.
Toxic gases such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon monoxide are also produced during the treatment of decomposed wastewater and sludge.
Toxic and harmful gases in process areas such as screen rooms, desanders, sedimentation tanks, and sludge tanks may pose a risk of poisoning to workers.
Methane and hydrogen can accumulate in wastewater and sludge storage areas or in confined spaces with poor ventilation.
Biological treatment processes such as digesters can produce large amounts of biogas, the primary component of which is also methane. Methane is the culprit in many combustion and explosion accidents at wastewater treatment plants.
In reality, different process steps produce mixed gases. For example, some processes primarily generating H2S also produce CO and CH4; processes primarily producing biogas also produce H2S. Therefore, targeted, comprehensive multi-gas monitoring of relevant processes at sewage treatment plants is crucial for safe production.
A comprehensive solution from technology to management
To address the pain points of sewage treatment plants, Chicheng Electric independently develops and produces toxic and hazardous gas safety monitoring equipment and an intelligent monitoring platform. Through a multi-layered sensing network, efficient early warning mechanisms, professional protective equipment, and comprehensive operation and maintenance management, they enable comprehensive monitoring and efficient management of sewage treatment plants, effectively curbing gas safety incidents and safeguarding personnel safety and environmental quality. Combustible and toxic gas detectors are deployed in sewage treatment plants to automatically and continuously monitor the status of gases such as hydrogen sulfide, methane, oxygen, and ammonia, as well as environmental parameters, in real time during the sewage treatment process. When gas leakage concentrations reach or exceed preset limits, the detectors immediately generate an alarm and transmit the signal to the controller, which then issues audible and visual alarms and activates exhaust or other peripheral equipment.
Alarm information can also be uploaded to a smart cloud platform, enabling comprehensive GIS map monitoring, data analysis, smart inspections, alarm linkage, intelligent operations and maintenance, large-screen personalized management, multi-channel alarm push notifications via mobile phone, SMS, and app, and remote control. This platform accurately and effectively addresses challenging safety management challenges in sewage treatment plants, including real-time risk monitoring, hazard investigation and management, closed-loop management, and scientific decision-making, ensuring safe operation.
>>>Personal Protective Equipment
Workers entering sewage wells must use portable gas detectors. Chicheng Electric’s portable gas detectors, certified for high-level protection, are waterproof, dustproof, and explosion-proof. These all-in-one gas detectors can detect up to six gases simultaneously and are compact, making them easy to carry.
Driven by both policy and technology, my country’s sewage treatment plants are transitioning from “scale expansion” to “quality improvement.” By building intelligent monitoring systems, upgrading protective equipment, and improving management systems, we can not only effectively curb gas safety incidents but also promote the industry’s development towards a green, low-carbon, and inherently safe environment.
In the future, Chicheng Electric will continue to deepen its research and development in the field of gas safety monitoring, and by increasing investment in cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence, it will promote the upgrade of sewage treatment plant gas monitoring systems to an intelligent system of “precise perception, intelligent warning, and active prevention and control”!
