As a means of enhancing further knowledge
acquisition in drinking water treatment, graduate students of Water and Environment
Engineering (WEE) are taken out to the field to practically see and learn the applied
principles in their field of study. It is such a motivating event, because
students get exposed to the real life situations in the field which helps to
trigger their minds on how to develop feasible solutions. The exposure is also
important in helping students to correlate between theories learnt through
lectures and the actual engineering implementation.
Based on the background above, the students
of WEE were taken to Yamanota drinking water purification plant, located in
Sasebo city, to practically see how membrane technology is applied in water treatment.
The plant was designed for a capacity of 50,600 m3 and uses the
microfiltration technology for purifying water. Membrane modules packed with ceramic
membranes of nominal pore size of 0.1 µm, measuring 180 mm in diameter and 1500
mm in length are used. The plant uses a total of 800 membrane elements all
fitted in the dead-end filtration mode. Backwashing of the membranes is
carried-out for 3 s after every 6 h filtration period. This is aimed at hydraulically
washing away fouling substances from the membrane. Yamanota water purification
plant is supplied with raw water from 4 different sources, namely; Yamanota, Kawatani
, Korobiishi and Komota reservoirs respectively.
It is Important to note that the
need for high quality drinking water lead to the technology advancement by
replacing the conventional treatment processes previously used at the plant,
with coagulation-microfiltration (MF) technology in 2010. MF is more superior
in regards to the high quality of water produced.
Students were extremely happy with
such a great exposure to use of modern and advanced technologies in drinking
water treatment. Such trips will help the world to bench mark from the good
advances in technology for the betterment of society and the people.
Great thanks to Prof.Takahiro
Fujioka for supporting students to understand the applications of membrane
technology in the water industry.
Author: Ronald Katalo
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| Discussing with other students about their experiences during the tour |
