With the rapid development of industry and the acceleration of urbanization, wastewater treatment plants are playing an increasingly important role in ensuring the safety of water resources and the environment. Water quality monitoring is a key link in the operation and management of wastewater treatment plants. Traditional manual monitoring methods face several challenges, including low monitoring frequency, delayed data reporting, and significant human error. These issues hinder the ability to accurately and promptly reflect changes in water quality, making it difficult to meet the demands for efficient and precise management of modern wastewater treatment plants. Consequently, providing an advanced and reliable automatic water quality monitoring solution is crucial for achieving real-time and continuous oversight of water quality in wastewater treatment facilities. This advancement is vital for ensuring the stable operation of these plants, complying with discharge standards, and safeguarding our water resources and environment.

The automated water quality monitoring solution for wastewater treatment plants is a crucial approach to achieving intelligent, efficient, and environmentally sustainable wastewater treatment processes. By integrating various sensors, data collection and transmission devices, automatic control technologies, and cloud computing platforms, these systems facilitate real-time, continuous, and automatic monitoring of the influent and effluent water quality in wastewater treatment facilities. They also provide functionalities such as data processing, early warning alerts, alarms, and remote management capabilities. Consequently, this enhances the efficiency of wastewater treatment operations and strengthens environmental oversight.

Water Quality Monitoring System

The automatic wastewater monitoring station consists of water sampling unit, the water distribution unit, measurement unit, data collection unit, data transmission unit and auxiliary unit.

Water collection unit: It is capable of automatically collecting water samples according to a pre-set program. It supports various sampling methods, including time-based sampling and flow-proportional sampling. The unit typically consists of a sampling pump, sampling tubing, and sample containers. It can collect either instantaneous or composite water samples, providing the required sample for subsequent analysis by the water quality automatic analyzer.

Measurement unit: It is the core equipment responsible for the automatic analysis and detection of various contaminants present in water samples. It enables online monitoring of key water quality parameters such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonium (NH4-N), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), pH, and temperature. Different analytical instruments employ corresponding analytical methods and reagents to rapidly and accurately determine the concentration of specific pollutants in the sample, with measurement results outputted in the form of electrical signals.

Data collection unit: Primarily composed of a data collector, industrial computer, and various functional modules, this unit is responsible for collecting, organizing, storing, and transmitting data and information generated by each monitoring device. Additionally, it supports real-time control and management of the monitoring devices, enabling remote monitoring and automated system operation.

Data transmission unit: It facilitates the transmission of monitoring data and equipment status information from the monitoring site to the central control center using communication technologies such as fiber optics, ADSL, CDMA, and GPRS. This ensures timely and accurate data transfer, allowing the monitoring center to perform remote supervision and management of the entire monitoring system.

Auxiliary unit: It can collect and display environmental parameters as required by the system. The environmental monitoring subsystem includes servers, network equipment, data storage devices, and monitoring software, which together are used to receive, store, process, analyze, and visualize monitoring data. It supports the generation of reports and charts, evaluation and alerting of monitoring results, and provides decision-making support for environmental department.