Background
ORE Catapult’s National Renewable Energy Centre, is located in Blyth, Northumberland and provides comprehensive open-access, independent test and research facilities for the scale-up of offshore renewable energy technologies. At the site Catapult can conduct reliability, design verification and accelerated life testing of units.
At the site, there are a series of still water docks used for testing. Over time, ingress from the River Blyth contaminates the still water docks with silt and other debris.
The Overall Objective
The objective for this work was to provide a means of removing as much of the debris and contaminants from the water in the still water docks as possible to provide clearer water to facilitate improved observation of testing in the docks.
Solution
The still water dock was pumped empty prior to installation of the treatment units. Siltbuster Process Solutions installed an 8m3 distribution tank on a stand that was fed by a pump installed in the river. The distribution tank was able to split flow evenly between three HB50M clarifiers. The treated water from the clarifiers was gravity fed into the still water dock over a period of 2 weeks, and any sludge was drawn off the clarifiers and stored in a 30m3 holding tank.
