Henry N. Wochholz Regional Water Recycling Facility (WRWRF) at the Yucaipa Valley Water District (YVWD) consists of primary, advanced biological secondary and tertiary treatment with advanced total nitrogen removal. While certain processes within the wastewater treatment plant have higher rate capacities, the current overall capacity of the treatment plant is 8 MGD (million gallons per day). A collection of high performance new technologies such as membrane ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and UV disinfection allows the facility and staff to effectively recycle wastewater and ensure adequate TDS (total dissolved solids) control in the various groundwater basins.

Always interested in enhanced treatment performance, the YVWD staff members recently examined the polymer use of the existing dewatering belt filter presses. Recognizing that today’s polymers are fully activated only after a short duration high shear/energy mixing regime that breaks up polymer agglomerations followed by a lower energy mixing zone that prevents polymer chain destruction, the team engaged Cleanwater1 to pilot their Polyblend® polymer activation system. Polyblend® systems have a two zone mechanical mix chamber that imparts the appropriate Gvalue or mechanical shear to emulsion polymers and then allows the expanding polymer chains to “uncoil” in a less aggressive mixing zone and reach the optimal viscosity.

YVWD installed the Polyblend® demonstration system in the dewatering building, side-by-side, with the existing polymer mixing system. The trial included a comparison of both polymer systems treating the same sludge on separate belt filter presses. During the demonstration period of 60 days the Polyblend® reduced polymer use from 67 pounds per day to 47 pounds per day, a 30% savings.