Super air required for sewerage plant

CAPS' Gas and Special Projects manager, Ken Pitman, recently commissioned a large project for the Werribee Treatment Plant, in the western suburb of Melbourne.

The project required blowers to provide supply air to the diffused aeration system. The floating diffused aeration system is part of an activated sludge plan (ASP).

This works via a 25 W lagoon system that consists of 10 ponds. When the sewage enters the first pond, it is progressively passed through to the last pond with an ASP located in the middle pond.

Their diffused aeration system consists of supply pipes that convey air from the blowers to the aeration zones, headers that run along the banks of the aeration zones and laterals which are the floating pipes that feed the attached diffused assemblies and down comers that connect each diffuser assembly to the floating pipes.

The air diffusers, at the end of the air distribution system, produce air bubbles at the bottom of an aeration cell.

The installation includes three units, each capable of maximum flows of 40,000 m3/h and pressures of 60 kPaG. The blowers are fitted with 750 kW, 6600 V motors, and are among the largest that CAPS has built to date.