TAI Process Engineer Liz Heise spent last week at the McMaster University Innovation Lab in Hamilton, ON for advanced training in BioWin is a wastewater process modeling software that TAI uses to aid in the design and optimization of biological and chemical processes for our clients’ wastewater treatment plants.

The training Liz attended included in-depth design seminars on wastewater characterization, as well as an explanation of the calculations performed by the software. The BioWin developers have collected data from hundreds of treatment plants from across the globe to develop standard kinetic rate reaction equations for over 50 wastewater constituents. The training cover how the kinetic rate equation was developed for each of the constituents, and the impact various process changes may have (for example, the importance of pH modeling in biological/chemical design). Additionally, the software allows the user to model a treatment plant dynamically. TAI uses this capability to evaluate the impacts of varying flows, loads, and temperatures over time, including the compounding impacts of recycle flows from side stream processes.

TAI always has and continues to use old-school proven design strategies but has incorporated modeling to optimize the process providing the most cost effective, practical solution to our clients’ wastewater needs.

Going forward, TAI will be utilizing the modeling software as a training tool for treatment plant staff to demonstrate the impacts various process changes may have on their treatment facility.