Wastewater and effluent monitoring
Wastewater treatment is essential in the food & beverage, sugar, chemical, and pulp & paper industries to protect the environment, meet regulatory requirements, and maintain efficient manufacturing. Side-streams and effluents from production processes must be carefully monitored to ensure compliance and avoid costly penalties or environmental harm.
Reliable monitoring also helps optimize treatment processes and reduce operational costs.
The Vaisala Polaris™ inline process refractometer enables continuous, real-time monitoring of dissolved solids in wastewater streams by measuring the refractive index of effluents. This immediate insight allows industries to detect elevated levels of dissolved contaminants as soon as they occur, supporting early intervention and prevention of process upsets or abnormal contaminant levels. With instant data, operators can take immediate action—such as diverting or treating waste before it reaches municipal systems - helping ensure compliance with environmental regulations and discharge permits. Installed directly in pipelines, it delivers real-time data enabling rapid response to changing contaminant levels.
Challenges
Wastewater treatment processes face multiple challenges that affect compliance, operating costs, and long-term sustainability.
Permit compliance risks
Insufficient monitoring can cause effluent to exceed discharge limits, leading to fines or surcharges.
Hidden losses and unstable flows
Undetected product leaks and fluctuating streams drive up costs, waste, and energy use
Manual sampling delays
Intermittent or delayed lab results mean problems are often discovered too late for proactive intervention
Maintenance and downtime
Inadequate monitoring can lead to equipment fouling, higher sludge volumes, and unpredictable operations
Vaisala Solution: Vaisala Polaris™ process refractometers
Vaisala Polaris™ process refractometers deliver continuous, real-time inline measurement of dissolved solids in wastewater streams. Installed directly in process lines, they provide reliable data unaffected by bubbles and suspended solids. Proven in demanding food, beverage, and industrial wastewater environments, refractometer’s reliable and real-time measurement allows wastewater plants to adjust their operation for the incoming load, reduce treatment costs, and increase their efficiency.
Liquid concentration measurement
Vaisala offers a wide range of products tailored to the liquid measuring needs of different industries.
The refractometer operates on the principle of critical angle measurement. Inside the refractometer, there is a light source, a prism, and an image detector.
Discover more about the refractometer technology and its applications, and visit the library of product-related assets.
Benefits
With Vaisala’s real-time measurement, operators gain multiple benefits that improve efficiency, reliability, and compliance.
Ensure compliance
Keep effluent quality within permit limits and avoid penalties
Cut operating costs
Reduce chemical dosing, aeration time, and overall energy consumption
Improve process stability
Optimize treatment despite fluctuating organic loads and inflows
Support sustainability
Minimize sludge, waste, and environmental footprint
Trusted reliability
Robust design ensures long-term, low-maintenance operation
Applications
Vaisala refractometers support wastewater monitoring in:
Sugars and Sweeteners
Side-stream treatments
Food and beverage
Side-streams and wastewater treatment
Effluent and water treatment
General industrial applications
Oil refining & Petrochemicals
Effluents treatment
Vaisala Polaris
With real-time monitoring, wastewater treatment becomes more predictable, compliant, and cost-effective.
Resources
More about Evaporation process optimization
Learn how inline concentration measurement enhances efficiency in upstream evaporation processes across industries such as food & beverage, pulp & paper, and chemical manufacturing.
