The Georgetown County Water and Sewer District Public Water Utility has been supplying more than 20,000 households and established industrial and commercial enterprises in South Carolina, USA since 1967.
Among other things, GCWSD operates a drinking water treatment plant, which needed some upgrades. These updates included a replacement of their vertical inclined-blade flocculators, which had reached the end of their useful life. In their search for a high-performance replacement that could solve the problems associated with the accumulation of solids in the flocculation basin, while still maintaining good floc formation, they opted for INVENT HYPERCLASSIC® Flocculators which utilizes a hyperboloid shape to effectively balance the amount of mixing energy required to prevent settling in the floc basins, while simultaneously minimizing floc shear.
The hyperboloid shape allows for a gradual acceleration of the floc particles to gently transfer the mixing energy to the particles and prevent breakage. After the first year of operation the plant staff inspected the new hyperboloid flocculators and found almost no settling or build-up in the flocculation basins, even when using lime for pH adjustment. This was a welcome change for maintenance staff from the previous equipment, which used to cause significant settling and sludge build-up.
