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Unit Operations

Twenty-five animated cutaways — every unit operation on the site, plus the two hydraulics sheets that connect them. Each one shows why the unit exists, the physical mechanism inside it, how the feed becomes product and waste, and which design parameter actually governs the size of it. Every animation is driven by the same correlations as the matching design sheet — here, or in the workbook — so dragging a slider moves the picture and the numbers together.

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Solids separation

C-300
Circular Clarifier — Centre Feed
The oldest trick in water treatment: give the flow enough time and enough quiet area, and anything denser than water…
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C-310
Rectangular Horizontal-Flow Sedimentation
The same physics as a circular clarifier, laid out in a straight line.
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C-320
Dissolved Air Flotation
Flotation is what you reach for when gravity will not do the job — when the solids are lighter than water, or so…
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C-330
Lamella Clarifier and Tube Settler
A stack of inclined plates turns one square metre of floor into ten or more square metres of settling area.
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F-400
Multimedia and Dual-Media Filtration
The polishing step.
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Oxidation & filtration

F-600
Iron and Manganese Removal
Groundwater holds iron and manganese in solution because there is no oxygen down there.
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Adsorption & ion exchange

F-500
Granular Activated Carbon Adsorber
Carbon does not filter — it adsorbs.
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IX-900
Ion Exchange — Softening and Demineralisation
The resin swaps one ion for another: hardness off the water, sodium onto it.
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Membrane filtration

MF-570
Microfiltration — Module Format and the Backwash Cycle
A physical sieve at around 0.1 micron.
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UF-580
Ultrafiltration — Module Configuration and Barrier Performance
Ten times finer than MF, and the difference matters: UF removes viruses and colloids as well as protozoa, and it is…
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NF-590
Nanofiltration — Selective Rejection and Softening
Nanofiltration is the membrane that chooses.
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RO-600
Reverse Osmosis — Array, Flux and Energy
Push hard enough on salty water and pure water is forced backwards through the membrane, against osmosis.
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Degasification

MD-630
Membrane Degasifier — Contactors and Vacuum Pump
A hydrophobic pore will not let water in, so it stays full of gas.
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Electrodeionisation

CDI-650
Continuous Electrodeionisation (CDI / EDI)
Ion exchange resin that never needs regenerating with chemicals.
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Disinfection

UV-700
Ultraviolet Sterilizer Sizing
UV does not remove anything.
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CT-710
Chlorine Contact Tank
Disinfection is not a residual, it is a residual held for a time.
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Thermal

E-800
Heat Exchanger Duty and Area
Two streams, one wall, and a temperature difference doing the work.
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Reaction & chemical

T-1000
Reaction, Flocculation and Mixing Tank
Mixing is not one thing.
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T-1100
Neutralisation and pH Correction
pH is logarithmic, so the dose that moves you from 2 to 3 is ten times the dose that moves you from 3 to 4 — and near…
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Dewatering and drying

D-1200
Decanter Centrifuge
A settling tank rolled into a cylinder and spun at three thousand g.
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D-1210
Recessed Plate Filter Press
The only dewatering machine that gives a genuinely dry, handleable cake — and the only one whose sizing rests on a…
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D-1300
Thermal Drying
Dewatering stops at about a quarter dry solids, because what is left is inside the cells rather than between the…
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D-1310
Solar Drying
The same water, taken out by sunlight instead of fuel.
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Hydraulics

Not a unit operation. Nothing is separated or transformed in a pipe or a pump — hydraulics is the conveyance between the unit operations above, and it is where a sound sizing calculation is most often undone: a line one size too small, or a suction that cavitates.

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