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C hem i al D c osages

Chemical Dosages

Dry Chemical Feed Rate

Feed rate of a dry chemical is calculated using the formula below: Chemical feed (lbs/day) = Flow (MGD) Dosage (mg/L) 8.34 (lbs/gal) Let's consider a water treatment plant with a flow of 15 MGD. We want to add alum to the water at a dosage of 18 mg/L. What should the setting on the alum feeder be? In order to find the answer, we make the following calculations: Chemical feed = 15 MGD 18 mg/L 8.34 lbs/gal Chemical feed = 2,252 lbs/day And determine the alum feeder should be set to a rate of 2,252 lbs/day.

If we need to set the chemical feeder rate to pounds per hour or to pounds per minute, we merely convert units, as shown below: 2,252 lbs/day 1 day/24 hr = 93.8 lbs/hr 93.8 lbs/hr 1 hr/60 min = 1.56 lbs/min

Liquid Chemical Feed Rate

The situation becomes a little more complicated when liquids are being fed instead of dry chemicals. In most cases, these liquids are not pure chemicals, but are a mixture of a dry chemical with water. Since the chemical is not as concentrated in the liquid form as it was in the dry form, a greater volume of the liquid chemical must be added to treat the raw water. The formula we use to determine the chemical feed rate of liquid chemicals is shown below:

You will notice that the formula is very similar to that used for dry chemicals, with the addition of four numerical terms used to convert units. The only additional element which requires explanation is the liquid concentration. The liquid concentration, given in mg/mL, is the amount of dry chemical (in mg) mixed with the amount of water
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(in mL):

So, if you added 230 mg of polymer to 100 mL of water, you would have a liquid polymer solution with a concentration of 2.3 mg/mL. We'll consider a situation in which the flow of the plant is 5 MGD and the alum dosage is 10 mg/L. The liquid alum has a concentration of 520 mg/mL. The chemical feeder setting would be determined as follows:

The setting on the liquid alum feeder should be 252 mL/min.

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