2134/34874 Patrick Webb Patrick Webb George Skouteris George Skouteris Shahin Rahimifard Shahin Rahimifard In-plant real-time manufacturing water content characterisation Loughborough University 2018 Industrial water sustainability Food industry Water quality In-line instrumentation Turbidity Optical fingerprint Mechanical Engineering not elsewhere classified 2018-09-14 15:50:32 Journal contribution https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/In-plant_real-time_manufacturing_water_content_characterisation/9567014 To trial the concept of in-plant real-time manufacturing water content characterisation, a commercial optical system for measuring light absorption and backscatter intensity was used with samples of food industry wastewater, and the results compared with conventional laboratory based water analysis. It is shown that the instrumentation is capable of coping with the range of turbidities presented by the wastewater and that there is some correlation between the absorption and backscatter measurements with the conventional parameters COD and TSS. It is suggested that combining backscatter and absorption data may provide an optical fingerprint of effluent that can be used as a management parameter, for example to identify unexpected contamination events. Potential uses of the instrumentation are discussed, including to provide rapid feedback on effects of system changes on effluent production, and in a feedback control loop to allow reuse of water without compromising product safety.