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Instrumentation & Data Package for Seawater DAF Pilots

The rig is just the instrument carrier — the data is the deliverable. Every Reynolds & Bauhm desalination DAF pilot is built around a full online instrumentation suite and a logging architecture that turns weeks of live-seawater operation into a defensible scale-up dataset. This is what we measure, how we log it, and how you see it from anywhere in the world.

A Pilot Is Only as Good as Its Measurements

A DAF pilot that runs but isn't properly instrumented produces opinions, not evidence. To stand up in a design review, a financing case or a membrane warranty negotiation, every claim — "95% algae removal", "SDI₃ below 3", "coagulant demand peaks at X mg/L during the bloom" — has to be backed by continuous, time-stamped, traceable data from a calibrated instrument. We design the instrument schedule first and build the rig around it, the same way we instrument a full-scale plant with DAF instrumentation & control and containerised I&C.

What We Measure, Live

Turbidity

Inlet, post-DAF and post-UF nephelometers track clarification continuously — the headline DAF performance signal.

SDI₃ / MFI

Silt density / modified fouling index downstream of pre-treatment — the number RO membranes are specified against.

Streaming Current

Online charge measurement closes the loop on coagulant dose as raw-water charge demand swings through a bloom.

Particle / Algae Count

Particle counter and chlorophyll-a fluorescence quantify the bloom load entering and leaving the DAF.

Oil-in-Water

For hydrocarbon-bearing intakes, an online oil-in-water monitor proves removal before the membranes.

Conductivity & Temp

Salinity and temperature drive air solubility and bubble behaviour — logged at every stage.

pH & ORP

Closed-loop pH on the coagulation front end and ORP where oxidant is dosed.

Flow, Pressure & ΔP

Mag flows on feed/recycle, saturator pressure, UF TMP and cartridge ΔP — the hydraulic fingerprint of the train.

Instrument Schedule Across the Train

LocationOnline instrumentsWhat it proves
Raw intakeTurbidity, conductivity, temp, chlorophyll-a, oil-in-waterFeed envelope & bloom load
CoagulationpH, streaming current, dose flow (cal column)Coagulant demand & control
DAF outletTurbidity, particle count, recycle flow, saturator pressureFloat quality & loading limit
UF outletSDI₃, turbidity, TMP, flux, backwash counterRO-grade feed & flux strategy
RO (if fitted)Conductivity/TDS, pressure, normalised flux, recoveryPermeate quality & energy

See intake monitoring for desalination → · DAF automated operation

From Sensor to Signed-Off Report

PLC + HMI

Every instrument wired to a single PLC with a touchscreen HMI for live values, setpoints and manual overrides — the same platform as our containerised SCADA.

Data Historian

High-resolution trending of every tag, retained for the whole campaign and exportable to CSV for independent analysis.

Remote Access

4G/VPN dashboard so your engineers — and ours — watch the rig live and pull data without a site visit.

Alarms & Events

Threshold and rate-of-change alarms flag bloom onset, dosing faults or membrane fouling as they happen.

Grab-Sample Cross-Check

On-board lab bench validates online readings against jar tests, SDI₃ kit and turbidimeter for traceability.

Report-Ready Output

Datasets feed directly into the analysis and the final pilot report that justifies the full plant.

Build the Pilot Around the Data You Need

Tell us the decisions the pilot must support and we will write the instrument schedule to match — then build the rig around it.

Industries We Serve

Our expertise spans multiple industries with sector-specific water treatment solutions.

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