Land-based high flow test facility
The GSI's land-based
testing of treatment systems takes place at a test facility
located in Superior, Wisconsin during the late-spring, summer
and early fall seasons. Key features of the test facility include:
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-
Infrastructure compatible with IMO guidelines for land-based
testing for treatment certification;
|
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- A freshwater estuary with plentiful aquatic life as the
water/organism source; |
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The option to conduct either in-line or in-tank sampling
and/or spiking; |
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Capacity to run controlled experiments on treatment systems
at up to 341 m3/hour; |
| -
A common intake stream that is split into control and treatment
tracks for simultaneous filling of matched treatment and
control retention tanks; |
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Capacity to retain water in matched control and treatment
retention tanks each roughly 200 m3 in volume; |
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Ability to treat test water upon intake and discharge; |
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Ability to transfer water from one pair of matched treatment
and control retention tanks to a second pair of tanks to
allow retention and evaluation of post-discharge treatment
water; and |
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- Ability to discharge to a tank truck if further water
treatment is required. |

Click
here
for a slideshow of images of the land-based facility.
University-based
bench-scale test facilities
Laboratory
space within the University
of Wisconsin-Superior and University
of Minnesota-Duluth is utilized to meet GSI
bench-scale test objectives, as well as for non-time sensitive
analysis of samples from the shore-based and shipboard scale tests.
Mobile
bench-scale facility
A
mobile field laboratory provides on-site bench-scale facilities
to support land-based and shipboard tests. The laboratory, pictured
below, is located at the land-based test site during the testing
season and will be moved to other sites in the Great Lakes-St.
Lawrence Seaway System to support GSI shipboard tests as needed.
The mobile laboratory is climate-controlled, and has enough desks
and counter space to allow for simultaneous microscopic and analytical
analysis of zooplankton, phytoplankton and bacteria samples.

The GSI's mobile laboratory.
Shipboard-scale
test facilities
Shipboard
in-situ testing of treatment equipment will be undertaken to "ship-truth"
technology performance exhibited at the land-based scale. The
platforms available to the GSI comprise ships in two distinct
trades: Canadian Lakers and transoceanic vessels. A Canadian Laker,
plying routine voyages between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the
Western Great Lakes, can be used to determine if the treatment
technologies perform as anticipated in actual shipboard conditions
in both fresh and saltwater. Ocean-going vessels in saltwater
trade can be used for tests of treatments at the most advanced
stages of development to determine if the systems perform as anticipated
in actual shipboard conditions in locations globally.