Industrial Process Water

In industrial process, the control of the quality of process water can be critical to the quality of the end product. Water is often used as a carrier of reagents and the loss of reagents to product must be continuously monitored to ensure that correct replacement rate is made. Parameters measured relate specifically to the process in use and to any of the expected contaminants that may arise as by‐products. This may include unwanted organic chemicals appearing in an inorganic chemical process through contamination with oils and greases from machinery. Monitoring the quality of the wastewater discharged from industrial premises is a key factor in controlling and minimizing pollution of the environment. In this application monitoring, systems analyze for all possible contaminants arising within the process and especially contaminants that may have particularly adverse impacts on the environment such as cyanide and many organic species such as pesticides (USEPA 1973). In the nuclear industry, analysis focuses on specific isotopes or elements of interest. Where the nuclear industry makes wastewater discharges to rivers which have drinking water abstraction on them, radio‐isotopes which could potentially be harmful or those with long half‐lives such as tritium will form part of the routine monitoring suite.

Depending on the type of industry, characteristics of process waters including physical‐chemical‐biological properties are likely to vary during operations, owing to breakdowns, spillovers, floor washing, change of a shift, and other causes. Because of potential variability of wastewaters, the sampling frequency, types of samples (e.g. instant grab or continuous), and location of collection, the sampling and the analysis of process waters usually require careful attention to details compared to sampling and analyzing municipal influents and effluents.

The purpose of sampling and analysis is to record the peak load concentration, the duration of peak loads or the occurrence of variation throughout the day.