Dissolved Air Flotation Troubleshooting

Since 1973, Ellis Corporation has been designing and manufacturing Dissolved Air Flotation Units for many industries around the world. We have many industrial users who contact us with a number of questions regarding Dissolved Air Flotation units and their operation.

Recently we had an Industrial User, who had a DAF manufactured by another company,  reach out to us reporting that he did not think that the DAF was working properly because they were unable to remove any sludge from the unit.  They were hoping a new surface skimmer system would solve their situation.  Ellis had one of our Applications Engineers provide a site visit to determine if we could answer the Industrial User’s questions and offer a solution to them.  

Upon arrival, the Ellis Applications Engineer noted the presence of oil on the Dissolved Air Flotation surface with the lack of any sludge blanket.

Upon further discussion, it was learned that the aeration system was not operational, and they had recently run out of wastewater treatment chemicals.  The solids were not floating and settled to the bottom of the separation chamber.  Ellis Corporation recommended a new aeration system using a microbubble generator as well as new chemical metering pumps.

Not all problems are this easy to identify but with our nearly 50 years of experience, we have provided many solutions to help Industrial Users get into compliance with proven technologies and systems that work.