Why WaQCoM provides water quality modelling at its best

Gabriel Pronek is an expert in Water Supply

Get in touch Get in touch

This #TechnicalTuesday, Gabriel Pronek explains the methodology, application and benefits of WaQCoM, WRc's proprietary water quality modelling tool.

WRc provides an in-house water quality and corrosion model, commonly referred to as WaQCoM. This tool provides a method for rapid assessment of the effects of treatment and blending on water quality. The tool also models scaling or corrosion behaviour of materials in contact with water. WaQCoM can provide a simple means of estimating chemical dosing requirements and exploring different treatment scenarios. This is useful for those involved in both operation and design of plants. The output is given in both tabulated and graphical form.

The process model bundles together a range of equations and parameters, which relate to water chemistry, blending, corrosion, and scaling potential in one easy-to-use package. This is what sets WaQCoM apart from other similar tools which do some of what WaQCoM does but don’t have the extensive blending functionality - what happens when different waters are mixed together.

The Specific and Detailed Outputs

The software outputs parameters relating to carbonate saturation status, including pH, alkalinity, carbon dioxide concentration, total inorganic carbon concentration, acidity, total buffer capacity, Langelier Saturation pH, Langelier Index, Ryznar Stability Index, saturation ratio, driving force index, momentary excess, Larson Ratio, aggressivity index, and calcium carbonate precipitation potential (CCPP).

The corrosion calculations include copper pitting propensity rating, Rosette corrosion potential, dezincification potential, zinc solubility, and estimated lead solubility. The software can give estimated compositions resulting from the blending of two different water sources over the full range of blending ratios, or more than two water sources in specified proportions. WaQCoM can also be used to simulate the effects of chemical treatment with regards to the above parameters.

The Chemistry Explained

The fundamental physical chemistry behind how the model works revolves around chemical equilibria. In an ideal solution, the equilibrium of a reversible reaction is related to the concentrations of the reactants. In reality, deviations from ideal behaviour occur because of interactions between ions; opposite charges in the solution attract one another whilst like charges repel one another. These deviations are accounted for by multiplying concentrations by activity coefficients.

These activity coefficients are dependent on factors such as the charge of an ion, the ionic strength of the solution, and temperature. In WaQCoM, activity coefficients are estimated using the extended Debye-Huckel equation, which is applicable for dilute solutions. This departure from ideality also applies to pH, the strict definition of which is in terms of hydrogen ion activity (concentration x activity coefficient) rather than concentration.

Of Interest To

Though WaQCoM is principally of interest to water companies, with several of them already using the current version, it is also a tool that applies well to the consulting sector.

Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019

Have your say

Head over to the WRc LinkedIn channel to join the conversation and share your thoughts with your network.

React, comment and share
Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019

Start a conversation

Full name
Email address
Company name
How can we help?

Can we stay in touch?

Your details will be stored within our CRM to allow us to handle your enquiry. We'd love to keep in touch and send you our newsletters and other notifications we think may be of interest to you. Please let us know if we have your permission for this.

Gabriel Pronek

Consultant Process Engineer

Gabriel Pronek, a member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), is a Graduate Process Engineer and has been working in the Water Treatment team at WRc since 22nd August 2022. He studied Chemical Engineering at Swansea University to Masters (MEng) level. During his studies, Gabriel completed work experience at Thames Water which gave him a much desired introduction to the Water Industry. Prior to his time at WRc, Gabriel briefly worked in the Pharmaceuticals industry.

2023-11-21 08:00:00