The large-scale River of Life project in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, aims to reduce the number of small treatment plants, thereby concentrating wastewater treatment in a smaller number of modern, high quality operations.
Pulsar Process Measurement has supplied, via its Malaysian distributor HAS, a FlowCERT system for open channel flow measurement to Ekovest KL Bund Sdn Bhd (EKLB), main contractors for the Bunus Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), which is being expanded from its current 750,000PE (population equivalent) capacity to up to 3,000,000PE, without requiring additional land.
It would have been too expensive to install a Parshall flume for the expanded capacity, so HSA proposed a Pulsar measurement system that would operate within a concrete inlet pipe.
For open channels without a primary measurement device (PMD), PPM’s FlowCERT system makes a velocity x area calculation of flow rate by combining measurements from a pair of non-contacting sensors – Pulsar’s MicroFlow RADAR velocity sensor and dBMACH3 ultrasonic level.
MicroFlow uses a RADAR spread spectrum analysis technique to measure flow velocity across the width of the flow, while the dBMACH3 uses the familiar time-of-flight ultrasonic principle, its high frequency 125kHz operation contributing to a high accuracy measurement.
Both MicroFlow and dBMACH3 perform initial signal processing within the transducer, before the measurements are integrated within the FlowCERT controller to calculate the flow rate, which is then communicated to the Bunus STP control system.
FlowCERT is pre-configured with the equations necessary to calculate the flow rate as the level and velocity changes within a round section pipe and is also pre-loaded with the necessary equations for other channel shapes. The Pulsar equipment is compact and easily installed and configured, and Pulsar supported the installation from their Sales Office in Kuala Lumpur.
