Is A Career In Water Treatment Worth It?
Personal Story
For me it has been. I am a chemist by trade, and using my chemistry knowledge in water treatment is very rewarding. I had both full time and freelance jobs throughout my career and the latter make the most money. Scientifically, and engineering wise, it is very interesting. You need to learn a little bit of chemistry, engineering in all its disciplines – electrical, mechanical, civil and materials, and some micro-biology. Process knowledge is very important that is where my course, The Complete Water Treatment Course comes in. There is the ecology aspect of it but that is not my domain. I read the COSHH and MSDS information and I know what is bad for me a or the environment and the river or sea. Water analysis is at the heart of water treatment. You know to know you water parameters and how to analyse for them and interpret the water analysis reports. Your knowledge will keep you safe as it helps you assess hazards.
Technical Intricacy
Chemical dosing rates are very important to know and that is where you need to know your chemistry and how to do dilution calculations based on flow rate. Monitoring parameters like TDS, Conductivity, Chlorides, alkalinity, hardness, pH, BOD, COD, N, P, DO are very important and these will elude the mechanical or electrical engineer. Your knowledge of water treatment chemicals is also very important. Coagulants, flocculants, pH adjusting chemicals, alkalinity adjusting chemicals, chlorine in all its forms, anti-scalants, corrosion inhibitors are some of the chemicals that are dosed in water to achieve certain results. You need to know your materials too. High chlorides will corrode steel pipes. PVC pipes can handle corrosive chemicals. Ammonia and dissolved oxygen will eat through copper. High pH water will eat through aluminium. Fibre-glass is an excellent material for storing many corrosive chemicals.
In drinking water treatment, you need to remove all suspended solids, bacteria and viruses, parasites and cysts, iron or manganese from the water, odor or taste molecules. Without drinking water there is no civilization.
Applications
In power stations, you need demineralized water otherwise the boilers will scale up or the steam will deposit silica on the steam turbine blades. Oxygen in the water will corrode the steel pipes.
In sewage treatment, which has been the single greatest contributor to health improvement of society and environmental protection of our ecosystems in the past decade, you need to know your processes. BOD munching bacteria need Dissolved Oxygen and nutrients, Nitrifying bacteria need CO2 and ammonia as well as N and P, Denitrifying bacteria need Nitrates and organic carbon. Nitrifying bacteria produce acidic conditions so you need alkalinity in the water otherwise the pH will dip. The Food to Micro-Organism F/M ratio needs to be right. The residence time is very important. Sludge recycling and discharge rates and important for the sludge age. Your knowledge of endocrine disrupting chemicals, DBP’s, Contaminants of Emerging Concern, PFAS, antibiotics, are all very important.
RO systems can turn sea water into drinking water. But you need to have a good pre-treatment scheme otherwise the membranes will foul with bacteria and/or colloids. Hard water can also develop scale on the membranes. When they do, you know to know which chemicals to use to clean them.
A Look At Sustainability
As our economy becomes more and more sustainable and circular, we need to recycle everything including water – one of the most important resources for life and the environment. When I was a child, we went to a beach in Lebanon which was polluted with sewage. I developed a fungus on my face that would not go away for a year. It was terrible. You can also get seriously sick from ingesting polluted water. Many poor African countries suffer from this. They drink from the river or well without knowing if it is safe and people catch gastro-intestinal diseases like typhoid fever or ingest heavy metals. If the nitrates are too high in the water and you give water with more than 50 ppm nitrates in it to a baby, it will develop blue baby syndrome. The nitrate competes with oxygen for the binding receptors in Haemoglobin in the blood. The baby suffocates chemically…
Resource recovery is also very important. The high BOD content of water can be converted to Methane Biogas which is a source of energy. Same with high COD water. You can treat pure urine with Magnesium chloride and extract struvite, Magnesium Ammonium Phosphate which is gold for the farmers. Add some Potash from your fire and you got NPK, expensive agricultural fertilizer.
Conclusion
If you are interested in pursuing this career, I can help you or guide you in your journey. Kremesti Environmental Consulting Ltd is building a global legacy in water treatment based on knowledge, passion and experience and we want to build up the next generation of poly-valent water treatment, all rounded, engineers and chemists. I hope I have piqued your interest and hope to hear from you soon.
Best regards,
Rami Elias Kremesti M.Sc., CSci, CEnv, CWEM
