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The continuous monitoring of important quality parameters is just as essential for drinking water procurement and water production in the food and pharmaceutical industries as it is for seawater desalination or wastewater treatment.
For many applications, the iron content in water is an essential measured value – it causes deposits, turbidity or affects the taste of food. Thus, the water with high iron content is automatically filtered, but the purified water is then usually tested manually by taking a sample on-site.
The water analysis experts at Bürkert Fluid Control Systems offer a compact, fully automated solution for such applications that enables continuous flow injection analysis (FIA) based on photometric iron analysis via an iron analyser. If required, the system can be expanded by several sampling points at a low cost.
Additional sensor modules can be used for flexible measuring of all relevant water parameters and thus increase process reliability. Like all sensor cubes, the iron sensor can be easily integrated into a Bürkert Online Analysis System – for example as a robust IP65 Type 8906 control cabinet solution.
The water analysis in the compact control cabinet is then customised to meet the user’s needs and includes pH value, chlorine and chlorine dioxide, ORP value, turbidity and conductivity measurements, all in addition to iron. All sensors are either maintenance-free or have long maintenance intervals and can thus be operated in a resource-saving way.
Compact iron measurement
The iron analyser determines the iron content in the range from 0 to 2mg/l; larger detection ranges are available on request. To do this, process water is automatically sampled in cycles at up to four different sampling points and measured with the sensor by means of flow injection analysis.
Rinsing, sampling, adding of reagent, mixing and photometric analysis all run automatically. The result can be stored in the system or on the higher-level PLC using a data logger.
The optimised measuring device requires only 50µl for each reagent per measurement. This means that one storage bottle is sufficient for approx. 5,000 measurements. The self-calibrating system allows measurement intervals of 60 min between measurements.
The operating pressure is 1 bar. Automated cleaning and EDIP-compatible communication (Bürkert’s own Efficient Device Integration Platform) allow quick installation and easy integration into process automation.
