Friday, October 11, 2024

Alphabet Gumbo at WEFTEC 2024

 It has been an age since I blogged here. I first started blogging in 2012 and since then I’ve been nothing if consistent in my inconsistency, but I’m hoping to change that. We’ll see! To get me back in the swing of blogging I thought I’d have a bit of fun with the plethora of acronyms in our industry. At WEFTEC in New Orleans this year I asked one of my colleagues to visit a vendor to talk about “SAF.” She did so, expecting to talk about “sludge air flotation” only to be faced with a conversation about “sustainable aviation fuel”! Whoops. I broke the rule about defining my terms. So, what the heck, here goes with a whole alphabet soup of TLAs and other acronyms. To the first person that can unscramble what the heck I’m talking about, I’ll buy you an IPA next time we meet…



On Sunday I attended a workshop where someone from HRSD spoke about ML/AI for their BNR using ABAC, AvN and PdNA. I don’t recall if XGBoost was better than OLS, but it was all very interesting.

In one of the sessions there was a discussion about PFAS. Turns out that PFAS is a PFAS that’s easier to remove than the PFAS called PFBS. Who knew?

Many of the speakers were very well qualified with MS, PhD, PE, BCEE, and ENV SP to name a few. Which reminds me I need to record my PDHs. I know others were more concerned with their CEUs, of course.

One of my favorite topics is EBPR, or more correctly S2EBPR which is an enhanced EBPR where the PAOs can make better use of the VFAs and other rbCOD. You have to watch out for GAO’s of course, but if you have dPAOs you’re more efficient in using the VFA but only if you have an AX. There was discussion about using AO or A2O, which depends if you have a MLR (or NRCY as the HRSD folks like to call it) and you have to check your C to P ratio. I forgot to ask if the FM or SRT were significant factors. I’m sure they are.

N2O is a thorny issue for many. It’s a potent GHG of course. Folks doing SND are worried it might be an issue for them causing high EFs. But the CF of a WRRF is not just about GHGs so you need to look at it more broadly. In fact we should really take a bigger picture view using LCA to look at all environmental impacts. Don’t you agree?

I didn’t hear much talk about SVIs this year, nor SPA, but maybe I just missed those talks about AGS or EDIs.

On my flight back (MSY to HOU of course), I was thinking about another project where we’re looking at QACs (or is that QATs?). We need to check the LOD and LOQ for the DADMAC we’re most interested in. It might not be in range.

OK, I think I’m done. If you can figure out what the heck I’m talking about, well done!  Or if you cheat and ask a LLM to figure it out for you - shame on you!

What’s your favorite TLA?


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