You can start sizing the system by asking these questions:

• How much water do you need to treat in 24 hrs?
• Do you discharge to sewer or will you recycle the water?
• What will you remove from the wastewater?

HEC offers several water treatment systems to meet your needs.

• Biological (BIO) Treatment Series can be used either as a discharge or closed loop system. Microbes consume constituents in the wastewater turning them into carbon dioxide and water.
• Mechanical Filtration (WLP & WCP) Series uses sand filtration to remove particulates down to 25 microns. A cartridge filter may be added to filter to 30 microns.
• Water/Oil Separator (WOS & WCL) Series uses oil attracting (oleophilic) media that separates the oil and floats it to the surface where an oil skimmer sends the oil to a decanter for easy removal.
• Electro-Coagulation Flocculation (ECF) uses aluminum rods along with electricity. The electricity passes between the rods and contaminates in the water are charged and coagulate with the free metal ions from a sacrificial anode, thus neutralizing the contaminates in the waste stream. This system is used in applications where metal removal is needed.

If you have access to a sanitary sewer you have the option of using a discharge system. Our system is meant to remove constituents down to a reading that should be acceptable to local parameters. (Parameter settings are not the same everywhere. Check with your local municipality)

If you don’t have access to a sanitary sewer, you will then need a closed loop system that removes constituents so the water is recycled for pressure washing.

It all depends on the system. Water oil separators require the least amount of maintenance as only one pump is involved, whereas mechanical filtration requires more (additional pumps, media filters, slide valves, pH/orp meters, and timers). Biological treatment is also a low maintenance system. Standard pump maintenance and coalescing media cleaning, which is necessary in all systems except the ECF, is all that is required.

The ECF system does not require a great deal of maintenance either. The anodes are a replaceable part and pump servicing is the extent of the maintenance.

Odor can be handled a few different ways.

• Ozone is an efficient way of handling odor. It is a quick kill of live bacteria. We introduce ozone on our Biological Series through a pump via a Mazzei injector into the product tank. (Note: ozone is harmful to microbes so it needs to be introduced where they are not present, such as a product tank).
  
  
• Germicide is another option for odor problems. Safe 03 is a germicide used by Mi‑T‑M in our mechanical systems (WLP & WCP Series). It is injected through a peristaltic pump and the amount is based on readings obtained by an orp probe and meter.
  
  
• BPS-120M (Biological Pit System) is another method for treating odor problems. Generally used in an existing pit, two linear air pumps provide aeration to the pit where microbes can be injected. A germicide can also be injected into the pit by two peristaltic pumps.

Definitely not! Remember, sometimes we rely on living bacteria to reclaim the water. There are many substances that will create problems or interfere with their ability to remove contamination. Acids or caustic materials shorten the systems operational life as well as kill the important microbes. In high volumes animal and vegetable derived fat, oil, and grease (cooking oil, fat poured off cooked meat, etc.) can cause problems. It can block your drains and also take the microbes a long time to “eat” this material.