The Basics of Wastewater Treatment for Concrete Production Applications

Concrete production applications require ongoing wastewater treatment in order to keep operations running. Not only is wastewater treatment necessary to stay within regulatory guidelines, but excess waste can reduce profits, slow down operations, and can lead to environmental harm/damage.

That's why you need to treat your wastewater to guarantee that you keep water cleanliness high and costs low. You could choose to pay an outside company to transport and treat the wastewater, but this is costly and inefficient. It also limits your ability to reuse the water.

Instead, it's best to treat the water on-site with filtration methods. This can lead to a number of benefits, including:

ㆍSignificant cost and efficiency savings

ㆍLong-term sustainability improvements

ㆍThe ability to reuse the water once treated for a near closed-loop solution

The Problem with Concrete Wastewater

With the growing reliance on concrete and ready-mix applications, countless gallons of water are used every day to mix concrete and clean down equipment. Cleaning the inside of a single concrete truck's drum uses 150-300 gallons of water, equaling 3,000-5,000 gallons per day for a single ready-mix plant. With more than 5,500 of these plants in the United States reported in 2018, that's a tremendous amount of water that needs attention.

This issue here is that processed and runoff wastewater in concrete production has too high of a pH to be reused or discharged. The pH can easily exceed 12, resulting in its classification as possibly hazardous. The water is also filled with sand, stone, and other aggregate that need to be removed, with many of the chemicals and toxic metals present in the wastewater causing further toxicity.

Treating Your Concrete Wastewater

The main goals of treating concrete wastewater are to restore the water's pH to normal levels and remove aggregate. Depending on the exact application, you may want to employ other wastewater treatment strategies like using coagulants, flocculants, or corrosion inhibitors, if needed.

Restoring your water's pH to normal levels requires lowering the basic pH of the water to a value around 7 or 8. You can accomplish this by using pH adjusters to get rid of water alkalinity. At the same time, you're also causing dissolved aggregate to settle out, which makes it easier to filter aggregate.

Once your water has reached the right pH, mechanical filtration methods are used to remove any suspended solids and aggregate. While a few different types of mechanical filtration equipment exist, the best one for concrete wastewater is the filter press.

Filter presses are key pieces of equipment for liquids/solids separation. With each press designed around the volume and type of slurry that needs to be treated, filter presses separate liquids and solids using pressure filtration.

What Is A Filter Press Used For?

When it comes to filter presses, nothing offers the same water efficiencies and cost benefits of a Matec Filter Press. This system allows you to easily handle, move, and dispose of waste, reclaiming up to 90% of your water.

UDO Group offers slurry water recycle solution. If you are interested in our products, please contact us now!