Calif. Recycling Plant Installs New Control Technology
Emerson Process Management announced Oct. 13 it has completed a WDPF®-to-Ovation® control system migration project at the West Basin Municipal Water District’s Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility in El Segundo, Calif.
The facility treats secondary effluent conveyed via the district’s Hyperion Secondary Effluent Pump Station at the Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Facility. Through advanced purification technologies – including microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and UV light and peroxide treatment – the recycling facility makes five different qualities of “designer” water. Use of this water ranges from irrigation to ultra-pure water for high-and low-pressure boiler feeders and cooling towers, as well as recycled water that supplies the area’s seawater intrusion barrier.
The project supports a plant expansion – the fifth expansion since the facility was built in 1994 – that is necessary to meet the needs of the region.
The Ovation expert control system monitors and controls microfiltration processes at the recycling facility as well as three satellite facilities:
- A nitrification plant that treats Title 22 effluent and distributes it to a refinery for use in its cooling towers.
- A facility that treats Title 22 effluent, using it for low-and high-pressure boiler feeds and cooling tower processes at another refinery.
- A regional water recycling facility that treats Title 22 effluent and transmits it for use at a third refinery.
For this comprehensive migration project, the company supplied 17 Ovation controllers and 19 workstations. Separate Ovation highways at each site are networked together, enabling operators to monitor and control processes at the satellite facilities from the recycling facility. In all, the systems manage nearly 20,000 I/O points. The project was executed in phases, ensuring that there was no disruption in plant operation and service to the district’s municipal, commercial and industrial customers.
The system allows a straightforward migration path for users of the company's previous- generation WDPF system.
”We were looking for a robust control solution that could accommodate not only a plant of this capacity, but also the complexity of producing five customized water types,” said Don Zylstra, senior water resources engineer, West Basin Municipal Water District.