Intelligently solving wastewater challenges in Victoria

North East Water’s municipal sewer pump station at Jordyn Terrace in Wangaratta, Victoria, is located within a busy residential area and close to a retirement village. It receives very challenging wastewater containing a large quantity of sanitary items, and other fibrous waste objects, that cause ‘ragging’ of the pumps. This resulted in pumps having to be lifted and unblocked twice or three times every week.

In July 2016, North East Water installed Xylem’s Flygt Concertor system with the aim of resolving this issue and delivering clog-free pumping to Jordyn Terrace wastewater pump station.

“Regular clogging of the pump station was a serious issue for us,” North East Water Manager Assets and Operations Grant Waite said. “As a result, operation and maintenance staff had to leave their daily work schedules to travel to the pump station, unclog the pump and get the station up and running again. In addition to man-power, a maintenance crane truck was needed to perform the pump lifts, which meant it had to be taken away from other projects, which added further expense to the repair job.”

The team had high hopes in this new system, as it combines Flygt’s self-cleaning hydraulics, Adaptive-N, as well as intelligent functionalities like pump cleaning. This function activates when a clogging instance is detected and starts operating the impeller at different speeds and directions to remove the debris.

Since the installation, station managers have reported no blockages or clogging issues at the station, as well as a cleaner station with less visible material in the sump.

Waite said: “We have found Xylem’s Flygt equipment to be of excellent quality so we were happy to trial the new wastewater pumping system. The trial pump we received is still running in our station and so far we haven’t had one single case of clogging.”

Concertor’s short-term results in Jordyn Terrace were certainly a relief for the station’s operators but their main concern was to find a sustainable solution that can bring peace of mind in the long run.

This is where the system’s flexibility played an important role. One of its main hardware elements, the pump impeller, is offered in three different materials, to adapt to different conditions: Hard-Iron, duplex stainless steel and stainless steel.

A high chrome alloy, Flygt Hard-Iron is claimed to be five times more wear resistant than duplex stainless steel. In accelerated wear tests, Hard-Iron kept working efficiently and showed minimal wear after pumping water with a very high concentration of extremely abrasive particles. This durability and reliability can save time and money.

Waite stated, “The Hard-Iron impeller will ensure that the current pump performance is maintained for extended periods. In an application like this, with wastewater that contains a high level of non-biological solids, it is the best option.”

The results include:

• clog-free pumping with no emergency call-outs since installation;
• a cleaner pump station with less visible material in the sump;
• fewer site visits by maintenance truck and staff — a positive result for North East Water as well as for residents living in the surrounding neighbourhood.

Flygt Concertor is proof that new technologies with sophisticated integrated intelligence for wastewater pumping do not require more components or complexities; rather, Concertor is user friendly and simple to install, commission and operate.

“Since Flygt Concertor has been installed we haven’t experienced any clogging issues at the station, which is a dramatic improvement to how the station’s old pumps had been running. The new wastewater pumping system has also had a positive impact on the local community — fewer visits to the station by large maintenance trucks and personnel. Station managers have also reported that the sump is cleaner as a result,” Waite concluded.

Xylem
www.xylem.com