An interview with Antoine Walter, Senior Business Development Manager Wastewater Treatment at GF Piping Systems and awarded podcaster of “(Don’t) Waste Water”
Antoine, can process automation be introduced into existing wastewater plants?
What already exists, can always be upgraded. This is a good place to leverage the experience accumulated in similar plants worldwide, to replicate best practices and success stories. Studies show that there is often 40-80% of untapped potential in wastewater treatment. Suppose we let the machine – from simple automation loops to AI – help us out in this. It may identify patterns and corrections that will optimize processes, good to go for a couple more decades.
What is the challenge when installing process automation into existing plants?
The biggest threat is having to stop operating. So, to limit the impact of on-site works, the more you can prepare off-site, the better. That may be fabrication, pre-assembly, or even pre-calibration. But, then, you need to assess the legacy in terms of communication links and come prepared with versatile solutions.
Your company, GF Piping Systems, builds plastic valves and actuators. How is a “plastic” product an improvement from a sustainability perspective? Wouldn’t this be a step backward?
When we talk of microplastics, plastic is a problem. One-way packaging and the likes don’t get degraded by nature. So for sure, that’s a problem! If you reverse the curse and use that plastic exactly in the places, where all other materials wear and tear, you leverage that same characteristic, this time for the better. When the first classes of plastic pipes came along, the industry planned them to last a couple of decades, and that was already much of an improvement comparing to the heavy and corroding steel. Now a couple of decades later, it turns out that we underestimated the performance of plastic material: there is much more in it, and everyone can benefit from it.
Now, let’s not paint everything pink. Plastic pipes are different to design compared with metal. Not simpler or more complicated, simply different. But if you’ve never calculated with it, you may want to seek some support to leverage the benefits while avoiding the pitfalls. Indeed a field we can (gladly) help with!
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