\n| Ion exchange feed<\/td>\n | <2 mg\/L<\/td>\n | <30 seconds<\/td>\n | Interlock to bypass valve<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Shanghai ChiMay’s suspended solids sensor family covers these ranges with a single optical platform, so the plant can standardise on one transmitter type across all five points.<\/p>\n <\/span>Sensor Design Considerations for High-TDS Brines<\/span><\/h2>\nSelecting the right suspended solids sensor for lithium brine service is different from selecting one for municipal or industrial water. The critical design considerations include:<\/p>\n \n- Multi-angle or backscatter optics<\/strong> to reject signal contributions from dissolved-ion refractive index effects.<\/li>\n
- Air-scrub or ultrasonic self-cleaning<\/strong> to keep the optical windows free of scale accumulation.<\/li>\n
- Chemical resistance<\/strong> to acid or base slug injections during regeneration cycles.<\/li>\n
- Rapid response<\/strong> to detect suspended solids spikes before they reach downstream unit operations.<\/li>\n
- Digital diagnostics<\/strong> exposing lens contamination, temperature drift and calibration status.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Shanghai ChiMay’s suspended solids sensor is documented for continuous operation in high-TDS brines with these design features, and its digital diagnostics feed straight into distributed control systems.<\/p>\n <\/span>Coupling Suspended Solids with Turbidity and Conductivity<\/span><\/h2>\nThe most defensible pretreatment monitoring architecture does not rely on suspended solids alone. It cross-correlates three signals:<\/p>\n \n- Suspended solids<\/strong>: Direct measurement of particulate load.<\/li>\n
- Turbidity<\/strong>: Optical shorthand for finer particulates and colloidal residuals.<\/li>\n
- Conductivity<\/strong>: Baseline for TDS shifts that can signal upstream chemistry events.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Divergences between these three signals often reveal the mechanism of an upset \u2014 a rising suspended solids reading without a turbidity spike, for example, often indicates larger clay flocs breaking through, whereas a rising turbidity signal without a suspended solids change often indicates fine colloid formation.<\/p>\n Shanghai ChiMay multi-parameter sensors combine these measurements on a shared electronics platform, simplifying the wiring and the historian schema.<\/p>\n <\/span>Calibration and Maintenance Discipline<\/span><\/h2>\nContinuous exposure to high-TDS brines demands a disciplined maintenance schedule:<\/p>\n \n- Verify calibration against a formazin or standardised particulate reference at least monthly during commissioning.<\/li>\n
- Inspect optical windows during every scheduled shutdown and clean per the manufacturer’s protocol.<\/li>\n
- Rotate spare sensors on a defined schedule to avoid drift-driven replacement.<\/li>\n
- Record every cleaning and calibration event in the historian so the resin vendor can correlate feed excursions with resin capacity trends.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Integrating Pretreatment Data with Ion Exchange Control<\/span><\/h2>\nThe whole point of pretreatment monitoring is to protect downstream ion exchange performance. That protection depends on integration:<\/p>\n \n- Automatic bypass of the ion exchange train when suspended solids at the feed manifold exceed the designed threshold.<\/li>\n
- Adjustment of coagulant dosing based on real-time clarifier overflow readings.<\/li>\n
- Historian retention of all five measurement points aligned with the resin vendor’s warranty investigation window.<\/li>\n
- Weekly review of pretreatment trends against resin capacity trends to close the diagnostic loop.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>Conclusion<\/span><\/h2>\nSuspended solids monitoring in lithium brine pretreatment has moved from a nice-to-have utility metric to a load-bearing element of DLE plant economics. High-TDS chemistry, seasonal variability and continuous operation defeat generic freshwater instruments, and only sensors engineered for this environment protect ion exchange cycle time. By placing sensors at five discrete points, cross-correlating suspended solids with turbidity and conductivity, and integrating the data into ion exchange control, plant teams turn pretreatment into a durable defence of lithium yield. Shanghai ChiMay’s suspended solids and multi-parameter sensors are built around exactly this operational reality \u2014 a reliable baseline from wellhead to resin bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" title: “Suspended Solids Monitoring in Lithium Brine Pretreatment Before Ion Exchange: A Shanghai ChiMay Field Note” date: 2026-07-07 category: Lithium Extraction audience: Technical tags: [suspended solids, lithium brine, ion exchange, pretreatment] Suspended Solids Monitoring in Lithium Brine Pretreatment Before Ion Exchange: A Shanghai ChiMay Field Note Key Takeaways Suspended solids are the leading cause of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[206,134481,11954],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.12.0","language":"ru","enabled_languages":["en","es","fr","ru","ar"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"fr":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"ar":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shchimay.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shchimay.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shchimay.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shchimay.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shchimay.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shchimay.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shchimay.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shchimay.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shchimay.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |