2024 was a milestone year for us at SENTRY so to celebrate our technology and installation progress, we wanted to summarize ten interesting municipal wastewater treatment, industrial wastewater treatment, and anaerobic co-digestion projects for the year. You may have heard of some of these but there’s also many new customer applications due to the flexibility and robustness of our real-time wastewater quality monitoring sensors - applications we’re hoping you can learn from when it comes to optimizing treatment and outputs even with the most challenging wastewater and/or combined feedstock conditions.
So, let’s dive in! Here’s what stood out to us in 2024…
#1: A New Real-time “Lens” on Your EBPR Process to Prevent Phosphorus Breakthrough
 | At the Idaho Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant in Idaho, we worked alongside our partners, Ovivo, to help the WWTP optimize their carbon management and overcome ongoing, unpredictable phosphorus breakthrough. Read more > |
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#2: Real-time Pre- and Post-MBR Effluent Quality Monitoring for Effective Water Reuse
 | During 2024, we validated that our wastewater sensors are a critical piece of the direct potable reuse (DPR) puzzle helping flag both pre- and post-MBR wastewater quality issues that could negatively impact resulting effluent. Real-time, reliable alerts of poor water quality in DPR is essential as this becomes a more standard source of drinking water in regions like California. |
#3: Earlier Influent Monitoring & Optimized Sampling to Tackle Variable Influent from Local Industries
 | Two SENTRY wastewater quality monitoring sensors were installed at the Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside (SAM) treatment plant to help address varying and abnormally high Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) levels in its influent due to local industry discharge. With our wastewater sensors, SAM reduced manual samples by 80% and saved over $50,000 a year. Read more > |
#4: First-ever Real-time FOG Monitoring & Optimization in Municipal Digester
 | Multiple SENTRY sensors were installed on a municipal digester that is co-digested with Fats, Oil, and Grease (FOG) to avoid digester souring and drive maximum revenues. |
#5: Real-time Biomass Health Monitoring for Optimized Organic Loading & Increased Biogas Production & Revenue
 | With continued legislative pressure within California to reduce organic waste, SENTRY sensors have proved instrumental with two municipal agencies in the state, The Central Marin Sanitation Agency (CMSA) and the Los Angeles Sanitation Districts (LACSD) helping them increase organic loading, biogas production, and plant revenue. Stay tuned for more LACSD updates in 2025 and read more about CMSA >. |
#6: Real-time Tracking of Effectiveness of New Inhibitory Compound Reduction Technology
 | SENTRY sensors were deployed at a Pennsylvania municipality to monitor influent and effluent specifically for the impacts of inhibitory compounds. This was done to assess how effective the facility’s recently deployed inhibitory compound reduction technology is. |
#7: First Manhole-installed Sensor to Determine Organic Loading Volume From Food Processing Facility Next Door
 | After an Ontario municipality wanted to find a way to directly measure how much organic loading a local industrial facility was responsible for, they worked with us in a unique installation that mounted a SENTRY sensor underneath a manhole cover next to the food processing plant in question. |
#8: Real-time Monitoring of Waste Discharged by Different Buildings at a Remote Research Facility
 | At a remote research facility with a small on-site treatment plant, they had suffered a series of semi-annual plant disruptions due to unknown on-site dischargers. After SENTRY sensors were installed and regular SENTRY Biomass Health Reports were generated uniquely leveraging AI/ML to detect acute toxicity, they were able to identify the local facility causing their effluent violation. |
#9: Real-time Aeration Optimization for Energy Savings & GHG Emissions Reduction
 | The Charlottetown Pollution Control Plant (CPCP) in Eastern Canada had been identified as a major contributor to the community’s GHG emissions. Seeking to mitigate their environmental impact, the CPCP turned to SENTRY sensors and our partners, APG Neuros, to implement an intelligent Advanced Aeration Control (AAC) system that resulted in a 14% improvement in aeration efficiency translating to $30,000 of annual electricity costs savings and a GHG emissions reduction comparable to removing 77 acres of forest. |
#10: Machine Learning-based Aeration Fine-tuning to Save Energy Use & Costs
 | As seen in the Water Environment Federation’s WE&T flagship magazine earlier this year, we completed a technical WRRF test case with our partners, Black & Veatch, which proved how reliable, real-time wastewater quality data like SENTRY sensors offer is the missing piece in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning-based wastewater control. Read the article to learn more > |
Hope you found our 2024 Top Ten List useful! What it all comes down to across the 650+ WWTP and AD operators using our real-time “living” sensors around the world is that for just a few dollars a day, earlier visibility into what matters most drives greater predictability and results, whether you’re battling the most challenging wastewater conditions or trying to get the most biogas production from your combined feedstock. And we have many sensor and AI-related enhancements planned for 2025 which will create even smarter wastewater and biomass!
If you have any questions about any of these exciting projects or how our sensors might help you gain wastewater and biomass insight like you’ve never had before, please reach out.
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