Control and monitor water at mine site truck wash

Multitrode, which became part of the Xylem family of companies in March, is used in the water and wastewater industry for innovation in monitoring and controls.

In a recent project, technology company Hydrasyst required a solution to assess, design and build a switchboard for a heavy- and light-vehicle truck wash and recycling plant at a mine site in Blackwater, Queensland.

The project involved designing, supplying and installing a pump station control and graphical interface footprint for the treatment plant and pump stations. The Hydrasyst criteria for choosing Multitrode was very precise. The company required that:

1. The controller must have an integral display that could configure and monitor the MultiSmart units.
2. The other controllers on the treatment plant skid would need to still monitor other motors associated with the process.
3. There needed to be an open protocol for connecting to other devices at the mine site, that is, the coal preparation plant control system.
4. The controller must have a graphical interface so the process could be viewed remotely via the internet, using Multitrode PumpView.
5. There needed to be a graphical interface on the site which would emulate what would be seen on the internet.
6. A monitor away from the site needed to be able to see and acknowledge alarms and events, and to troubleshoot and fault find the system.
7. When necessary, it must be able to change the controllers and get the system back online in four hours.
8. The monitoring system must enhance the water recycling savings at the treatment plant and save energy.

Hydrasyst services high-volume water-use industries. Its Waste Water Recycling Systems are claimed to have low operating costs, high energy efficiency and a small footprint. Its ‘Grey Box’ is a high-turbidity wastewater treatment system which has been specifically designed for industrial wastewater recycling applications and addresses the rising costs and legislative demands of managing industrial wastewater.

Multitrode was able to provide Hydrasyst with a suite of engineering, consulting and design services, as well as a full schematic of the control process, network diagram and general arrangement of the plant. This involved managing and designing the project, supplying the web-based graphical interfaces, all the communications networks and databases, and customer training and support. The customer is reported to be very satisfied with the solution.

“Multitrode designs and manufactures pump station controllers, pump station supervisors, liquid level sensors, SCADA software and web-based monitoring and control,” said Multitrode National Sales Manager Paul O’Kane.

“We have delivered technically advanced, yet simple-to-use solutions to municipal water and wastewater applications around the world for almost 27 years.”

Multitrode’s Multismart is the result of its 20 years’ experience in control and monitoring technology for water and wastewater pump stations. The MultiSmart intelligent Pump Station Manager has an intuitive interface for operators and engineers, and minimal programming is required. Its Duo Probe level sensor helps prevent overflows and improves accuracy of measurement.