Gratulacje Flovac Polska for a new Septic Tank Replacement Scheme

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Flovac Polska, the largest designer and supplier of vacuum sewerage systems in Poland has just completed providing a vacuum sewer system for the small rural town of Zakościele. The community is a ribbon development along the Pilica River.

The small town with about 150 houses is located approximately 60 km south east of  Łódź. Some of the houses are located alongside the river and above the road sloping down towards the river. Between the river and the main road, where most of the houses are located, flooding has become a regular occurrence. It has become a health issue with septic tanks overflowing when the flooding occurs.

At first a tender came out for  a gravity system with a number of pump stations located along the rivers edge. When our colleagues from Flovac Polska contacted the town and contractor (designer) about the benefits of a vacuum system in this location, they were very unsure as they had never heard of vacuum system.

After a whole of life costing analysis and discussions with the contractor about the capital costs it was clearly shown that the vacuum system would be a much cheaper option. More importantly a Flovac system was seen as a much better system to install in an area where flooding was a problem.

Read here about how the Flovac Valve can operate under water

Another major benefit of the system is that it is fully monitored, so all of the collection pits and pump station sends data to the central control system and the operators.

This includes a high level alarm and an alarm that warns of any possible infiltration occurring. All of the monitoring equipment is rated at IP68 so that it can operate under water.

This is shown here on a video taken of one of the Flovac valves operating under water with the MZA monitoring device attached. SEE HERE

Poland has become one of largest countries in the world using vacuum sewerage systems and Flovac Polska has designed and installed more than 60 systems, nearly all of which have been septic tank replacement schemes funded by the European Union.

Can the Flovac Valve and Controller work under water

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Vacuum sewerage systems are often installed in areas which are prone to flooding and rising water tables. A question we are often asked is

“Can the Flovac Valve and Controller stilloperate when they are under water”

The simple answer is yes!

The writers of the British and European Standard for Vacuum Sewerage Systems EN16932-3:2018  and the stricter Australian Standard for Vacuum Valves AS 4310 required that a number of independent tests be undertaken. The Blockage test (seen here) and the Submergence test were two of the most important.

The reason is that “A submergence test is conducted to confirm that the valve can be installed in flood-prone areas”  In Annexure A.3 in the European Standard and Appendix F in the Australian standard it outlines what is required for the testing.

The USA does not have any standards for vacuum sewer systems so utilities should rely on other International standards.

The stricter Australian standard requires that the valve, controller and all fittings shall be capable of continuous operation without failure when immersed to a depth of 1,500 mm (5 feet) above the top of the valve body in water and/or floodwaters, which may contain large quantities of sediments. The European standard only requires that the valve is covered by 300 mm of water.

Flovac had independent auditors Dekra carry out all of the testing requirements covered in both standards. Dekra are one of the largest and most respected testing and certification organisations in the world, operating in 50 countries and with 45,000 employees.

The DEKRA Test procedure and P for Pass

Whenever our operations group has found a failure of a Flovac valve or controller at a project site which has been subject to flooding, in all cases it has been due to incorrect installation. Either due to hose clamps not installed or o-rings left off. In areas which are badly affected by flooding we will often install the controller in a dedicated pedestal next to the collection pit. This is not to protect the controller, which can still operate when submerged, but to allow the operator to fire the vacuum valve which might be covered by floodwater.

This video shows a Flovac valve with monitoring operating under water.

For those operators with a Flovac Monitoring System the valve can be fired remotely either via your phone or other IOT device.

If your project is subject to flooding there are a number of other protective measures which can be taken (read this article for more information)

Why are ISO Standards Important

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With the recent move to a new international production facility in The Netherlands, the first thing that General Manager Mr Leo Huijs had to set up was new ISO certification for the new facility.

ISO certification covers many aspects of our business and how we do the business.

ISO 9001 covers Quality and ensures that Flovac is set up to produce and deliver products to our clients in such as way as to ensure we will have every aspect of production and logistics set up to always deliver defect free product.

Our whole research and development process gets reflected within this, knowing that nothing can compromise the great efforts done by the staff in production to meet these quality standards are kept.

ISO 45001 covers our workers, to ensure that they work in a safe environment. Flovac has operated in conjunction with a sheltered workshop, working with disabled workers and so it has been upmost in Leo’s mind to make sure that all of our work processes are safe. Although the intent of ISO:45001 is in protecting our workers at the production facility we are also very mindful of the workers in the field.

Not just our own operators but our clients as well. Much thought is given to the design of our vacuum pump stations, our collection pits, our vacuum valves and our monitoring systems to ensure that at the front of our mind is the expectation that everything that we design and produce will provide a safe environment for all operators of vacuum sewerage systems.

The production facility also gets a number of visitors each year for training and education. This also includes a number of school children, coming to learn about where poop goes.

ISO 14000 is a family of standards related to environmental management that exists to help organizations minimize how their operations negatively affect the environment; comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements; and continually improve.

As Flovac is an environmental company and brands itself as the “Green Future of Sewerage Collection” the ISO 14001 was a very important standard for us to follow at a production level. We continually look for ways to improve our interaction and engagement with the environment.

Flovac’s first project in South Korea

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This is a unique project, designed and installed by Flovac’s partners in South Korea Coway EnTech Co. Ltd.

Mr Changil Koh the Deputy Manager in charge of the project, said that vacuum systems are very useful in handling the wastewater from the offices and facilities in industrial projects such as Nuclear Power Plants.  they have also been installed in Oil Refineries and at airport facilities as no power is required at the collection points only at the vacuum station. This means that there are no points of ignition risk within the system.

Mr Koh said that the laying of the HDPE pipework was  a lot easier than using gravity sewers as it could be installed above ground where required or in shallow trenches. There is more than 2 kilometers of pipework involved. Most area’s where industrial complexes are built in flat areas with difficult to construct ground conditions. This is ideal for vacuum sewers.

The Shin-Kori Nuclear Power Plant #5,6 – Sanitary Water Transfer Facility in Busan will be providing much needed power by 2022. It is owned and operated by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, a subsidiary of KEPCO. Flovac was chosen for this important project after an exhaustive trial to ensure that all of the Flovac components could handle the extreme conditions where temperatures can often drop to well below freezing.

Vacuum sewerage systems can be installed in a wide variety of projects READ HERE

 

Upgrading your Vacuum Pump Station

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The Vacuum Sewerage Industry is now 50 years old and for a variety of reasons some of the systems infrastructure will need to be replaced or upgraded. It could well be a move away from old liquid ring pumps. It could be that some of the equipment has just come to the end of its expected life. You may have inherited assets that were never looked after as per the suppliers manuals.

Hopefully you have a station that was designed with the future change out of equipment in mind. Large doors and a cranes to get pumps out of the building. A roof that can be dismantled without too much problem to get the tank out and replaced. Fortunately the building was designed so that upgrades or refurbishment could occur. A new stainless steel tank was installed. An upgrade can give the utility a chance to look carefully at the catchment area with fresh eyes. Have the daily household flow rates gone down, have you installed new monitoring systems that have sorted out any infiltration.

Are there more houses or another developer that you could now accept into your catchment if the pumps were slightly larger? The Flovac Engineering Group is often asked for advise on the upgrading of a vacuum pump station and as the group has designed more than 300 stations and probably designed the one you are now upgrading, they would be the best people to speak to.

The Flovac Operations Group is the next point of call. What changes have there been to suppliers equipment, what lessons have been learned from hundreds of systems around the world. Are there changes to health and safety regulations. What impact will there be on power use, ventilation and odor. The most important aspect is what is your plan to upgrade a system that is now live without major problems.

The operations group have been involved with the installation of more than 300 vacuum stations and the upgrade of more than 50 stations. Flovac can supply containerized vacuum stations to support the upgrade.

For a more in-depth look at what is required when a vacuum pump station is upgraded there are more details here or call our engineering or operations groups.

Versatility for Developers

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A “Plug N Play” Temporary Solution.

Installing infrastructure at the early stages of a residential housing development can often disrupt the staging process and the cash flow of the project. Vacuum sewerage systems can make it easier.

At Flovac, our engineers have used deployable engineering solutions that will be incorporated into long term projects.

The town of Clevedon in Auckland New Zealand is finally beginning the process of eradicating septic tanks which have been causing environmental problems and will install a new Flovac vacuum sewerage system. Growth in the town had been on hold due to the lack of a proper municipal sewerage system. This has impacted on the restaurants and commercial premises and the increased demand on housing which is just a short drive to Auckland City.

Gravity sewers were looked at for the area, but a very high water table made that a very expensive and disruptive alternative. Low pressure Grinder pumps were also looked at but with an ultimate population of more than 6,000 people costs made that prohibitive. There were also other downsides with looking at grinder pumps where the local utility has had some terrible experiences. An increasing number of severe storms meant that power outages left communities with no access to sewer services. Also off sewage during low flow periods put added pressure onto Treatment Plants. The main issue was also the reluctance of the community in having sewerage infrastructure on their properties which would need to be accessed whenever problems arose.

The proposed vacuum sewer system will require only a single vacuum pump station and all sewage infrastructure will be outside the property boundaries. There will also be far less impact on residents as installation can be a lot faster than a gravity installation as all pipework will be shallow in the ground and so less de-watering will be required.

Watercare who are the water and wastewater service provider for the greater Auckland area is leading the project and has had a lot of experience with the successful Flovac vacuum sewerage system at the town of Kawakawa Bay which has won a number of engineering and environmental awards. members of the project team have also visited the successful projects that were installed in Christchurch NZ which replaced systems impacted by large earthquakes. Auckland is also in an earthquake zone, making vacuum systems an even better solution.

As the township of Clevedon connects up to the sewer network a number of new residential developments will also be built and will connect to the system. The vacuum sewerage system is versatile enough to cope with developers adding on new houses as they are built over the coming 10-15 years.

As there are multiple developers involved in the project, the timing of infrastructure installation can be difficult. What roads need to be built first, which group of houses need to be serviced first.

One well know developer with a small block of 26 houses positioned at the very end of the catchment wanted to develop their land well ahead of the infrastructure being ready for connection. As it is a major project it will take over two years to complete and possibly longer before the pipework reaches all the way to the end of the catchment. Working with Flovacs engineers an interim solution was proposed and Watercare was flexible enough to allow the developer the opportunity of utilising short term infrastructure.

Flovac’s deployable sewerage systems have been used in a variety of projects around the world, including at the London Olympics. You can see details of the projects here.

The developer installed the vacuum mains and house connections as well as the Flovac collection pits. A plug and play containerized vacuum pump station was positioned next to a temporary treatment plant and the system was connected up. Once houses are built, local plumbers can connect to the vacuum pits. The system will be operated and maintained by a local operator with support from Flovac. As the station and all of the collection pits have wireless monitoring, Flovac’s operations center in Sydney Australia can provide 24 hour support.

When the time comes, the deployable system can be moved on to the next project and the vacuum mains connected up to the main Clevedon project mains and vacuum pump station 4 km away. The developer has spent a minimal amount of money which allowed them to start selling houses significantly faster than traditional methods would have allowed for.