CarboNet chemistry: Lower TSS and faster settling for aggregate wastewater.

Don’t let suspended solids suspend operations.

Aggregate wastewater is a mighty mess of silica, silt, and clay that legacy polymers struggle to flocculate and settle. Whether it’s frac sand, construction aggregates, or quarry fines, crews often overdose as they try and wrestle PPM within range, driving up chemical costs, slowing down operations, producing wet sludge, and overloading settling ponds.

‍The details: Legacy chemicals are the core problem. Commodity coags don’t clarify enough and flocculants can’t settle fast enough. The results are felt throughout the site:

Fine solids = slow settling. Ultrafine silica and clay stay suspended, choking ponds and clarifiers and limiting wash plant throughput.
Legacy chemistry = constant babysitting. Legacy polymers struggle with rapid changes in influent PPM and flow, forcing constant manual adjustments and overdosing.
High polymer use = more sludge to manage. Overfeeding polymers inflates sludge volume, drives up handling costs, and shortens pond life.
Bottlenecks upstream = downtime downstream. When settling lags, everything backs up—wash circuits, reclaim water, and production schedules.

‍Solved with science: CarboNet chemistry is built to handle ultrafine particles and shifting water conditions, producing fast settling, clearer overflow, and stable performance without constant adjustment:

SimpleFloc gels need no make-down and settle rapidly. Ideal for distributed or hard-to-staff locations.
SimpleFloc emulsions are easy to dose, forgiving, and designed to minimize polymer use at scale.
SimplePrime coagulants (inorganic, blended, organic) neutralize charge and stabilize solids to reduce load on downstream systems.
SpecialOps tracks chemical performance and dosing patterns across sites—turning water programs into measurable metrics.

‍Behind-the-scenes: CarboNet chemistry is built on the NanoNet platform, our molecular engine for faster, cleaner, and more consistent solids removal. Whether you’re operating frac sands or construction aggregates, NanoNets supercharge performance by reducing polymer use, improving floc strength, and shrinking sludge volume.

Paired chemistry: Our coagulants pair cleanly with SimpleFloc to drive faster separation with less pH interference. And with SpecialOps, your entire dosing program—across sites, chemistries, and crews—feeds into a single, remote dashboard for real-time oversight and cost control.

‍The bottom line: Across aggregate operations, CarboNet simplifies wastewater treatment—faster settling, lower chemical use, and fewer operational headaches—without redesigning your system.

Reference project

An aggregate mine wash plant achieves profitable operations by changing chemistry.

Background: An aggregate mine wash plant treats sand and gravel using a closed-loop system. Wash equipment sprays the material to rinse away contaminants where it is screened and sorted. Water is recycled using a series of settling ponds.

Polymer is dosed to help settle solids in the wash water before it is clarified in a primary settling pond. The treated water flows into a secondary settling pond which feeds wash equipment.

‍The problem: Solids carryover from the primary settling pond started accumulating in the secondary settling pond, eventually circulating back into the wash plant’s equipment.

Wash equipment clogged by solids carryover. Unsettled particulate from the ponds circulated into wash equipment and blocked nozzles used to spray material. Operators needed to pause for maintenance, shutting down production. ‍
Settling ponds required more maintenance. Operators had to excavate ponds more frequently to remove accumulated solids from transfer points.  ‍
Shutdowns impacted plant profitability. The facility requires 24 hour operations to remain profitable. These conditions limited operations to 12 hours at a time—limiting inventory and sales.

The root cause was determined to be an ineffective wash water chemistry and dosing program.The solution: CarboNet tested on-site and designed a new chemistry program to optimize performance and cut cost-to-treat. Products selected include:

SimplePrime 2000: a coagulant for clarification which increases material settling rate.
PreFlight 10034A: a flocculant used to separate materials in wash water.

The team also installed an automated pump to replace a manual process. It modulates chemistry to reduce overdosing, and provides consistent mixing before water is recycled for reuse.The results: The mine resumed 24-hour operations with lower OPEX and CAPEX. Consistent water treatment performance allows delivery of material to the plant’s customers at a lower cost-per-dry-ton.

Mine math.

Every operation fights the same battle: how fast you can turn dirty water into clean water—and how much solids you can drop along the way.   

CarboNet chemistry speeds up settling while giving operators control over slurry behaviour: lower TSS, clearer water back to the wash, and slurry that holds together without clogging the pond.   

Less fouling. Fewer shutdowns. And chemistry that tunes to your system instead of overwhelming it.

Applications

Frac sand

Construction aggregates

Quarry fines

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Lower TSS and faster settling for aggregate wastewater.