Higher School of Automation and Robotics in cooperation with partners from LUT University, St. Petersburg State University, Port of Lappeenranta and NPK Omega proceeded to the final stage of works on the international project “Innovative mobile plant for water treatment (OneDrop)” in the framework of cross-border cooperation programme South-East Finland-Russia CBC Programme 2014-2020.

The project is dedicated to the development of automated equipment for the safe industrial production of sodium ferrate by membrane electrolysis and the technology of its use on-site for the disinfection and treatment of storm, domestic, ballast and toxic wastewater.

Last year bachelor’s and master’s students actively participate in the work. In the 2021 academic year, it is planned to defend three bachelor’s final qualifying works, two master’s theses on the subject of the project.

About the project: The production of ferrate by membrane electrolysis ensures high productivity, the safety of production and dosing of reagents due to the automation of these processes, compactness and scalability of the equipment used. Ferrate is a powerful oxidizer, coagulant and flocculant and can be used for water purification for various purposes.

Within the framework of the project, the following tasks are developed:

  • automated mobile unit for the implementation of integrated treatment technology, including a ferrate synthesis module and a water treatment module with chambers for oxidation, sedimentation and filtration;
  • method for monitoring the concentration of ferrate in a solution with a photocolorimetric sensor;
  • method of indicating the completion of the process of sodium ferrate oxidation (ferrate consumption) of microbiological pollutants and toxic substances in the treatment of various waters;
  • in the course of preliminary experiments, the required dose of sodium ferrate, the conditions for its administration and additional reagents for the implementation of water treatment processes are determined; the doses of additional reagents and the conditions for their dosing are selected;
  • It is planned to test the effectiveness of ferrate in the treatment of toxic wastewater.

As a result of the project, it is planned to create industrial technology and equipment for solving practical environmental problems in the North-Western region of the Russian Federation and South-Eastern Finland.

Source: ВШАиР успешно продолжает работу над международным СВС-проектом | Институт машиностроения, материалов и транспорта Санкт-Петербургский политехнический университет Петра Великого (spbstu.ru) (available only in Russian)