First Flovac Project in Denmark, Hages Badehotel (Beach Hotel)

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Flovac’s first project in Denmark is linked wih Denmark’s largest infrastructure project and the world’s longest immersed tunnel. The Fehmarnbelt. The land used for the Hotel and housing project has come from the earth excavated from the tunnel project.

The project is located on the island of Lolland and the tunnel will connect Lolland with the German island of Fehmarn. It was vitally important for the developer Lidsøparken A/S and the architect Miami Ark to create a project that would fit in with the natural beauty of the area, looking after the birdlife and unique plant life. It was decided at an early stage that a vacuum sewerage system would be the only collection system suitable to meet all environmental criteria with low energy use and low impact.

STEEL ApS, who had some previous experience with vacuum systems decided in 2021 to enter a long-term relationship with Flovac, to use Flovac’s vacuum valves and equipment throughout Denmark.

The project’s first stage is a vacuum station and several collection pits servicing a restaurant and 72 houses with 124 apartments. The area is covered with reeds, small lakes with a clay soil and a high ground water table. The second and third stages will include a further 134 holiday houses and a luxury glamping area.

The Hages Badehotel and housing is built on stilts with the idea that this would create the least amount of impact on the land. And that in 100 years the development could be closed and there would be no sign of any impact on the area. This is another reason why a Flovac system was chosen.

The Largest Vacuum Sewerage System in the Southern Hempisphere

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A vibrant masterplanned community is being established 25 minutes drive from Adelaide in South Australia. Lang Walker head of one of Australia’s largest developer’s Walker Corporation opened the new entrance to Adelaide’s newest suburb, Riverlea, last month.

The community will have 12,000 houses, and include three schools, large shopping and commercial centres. The whole area will be serviced by a Flovac vacuum sewerage system. A vacuum system was chosen due to the environmental benefits of installing a sewer system in an area that has a high water table. Less pump station infrastructure means lower power. The shallow pipework operating under a negative pressure means no risk of infiltration nor of any risks of sewage leaking out into the environment. Low Cost Flexibility.

The whole system will have the latest in wireless monitoring at every collection pit.  You can read about the benefits here. This will allow SA Water to reduce their operational costs and risks. Predictive alerts, rain water sensors, pressure sensing and energy use will all be incorporated into the utilities SCADA as well as being fully available to operators and management via a cloud platform.

Vacuum sewer systems are often used in septic to sewer programs for existing towns. But we have also seen a big increase in their use by developers due to their environmental benefits and low cost installation. There is also the benefit of flexibility. For the first part of this project Flovac supplied a deployable vacuum pump station to provide service to the irst 200 houses prior to the main pump station infrastructure being built.

Deployable Vacuum Pump Station for staging of development

Award Winning Vacuum Pump Station Design

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The Hunua Views Flovac vacuum pump station located between Drury and Ramarama south of Auckland in New Zealand has taken out the highly commended award in the 2021 ADNZ Resene Architectual Awards. The design was done by Madushin Amarasekera of Construkt Associated for Classic Homes, a major developer in New Zealand.

The Hunua Views residential development , is serviced by a vacuum sewer system after deep gravity sewers and low pressure pumps were rejected by Watercare, the main utility looking after the Auckland area. Up to 1,000 houses will be connected to the new vacuum pump station.

The comment at the awards

A beautifully bold and intriguingly sculptural project by Madushin Amarasekera of Construkt Associates NZ took out a Commercial/Industrial accolade in the 2021 ADNZ Resene Architectural Design Awards. With a need to accommodate very specific engineering functions, Madushin took the opportunity to create not only a functional home to the pump station, but also a building to act as a site marker within its residential context. We love the irregular roof geometry which perfectly accompanies the textured precast concrete panels.
🏆 2021 ADNZ Resene Architectural Design Highly Commended for Commercial/Industrial Award.
Watercare are naturally very proud of the new infrastructure and were very involved in the coordination of everyone involved. When designing and creating the structure, specific engineering functions needed to be met and there was a lot of coordination between the architect, civil, structural, services & acoustic engineers, precast fabricator and Flovac, the vacuum system specialist. In fact, it’s so detailed that all the vents were acoustic rated while the control room is positioned on the south side, providing an acoustic buffer for nearby residential dwellings.

Flovac is the largest vacuum system supplier in New Zealand and has established a production facility on the north island of NZ to handle the business growth within the country.

Photos by Calvin Hui

EPA demands that vacuum technology to be used at Eco Resort

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The Couran Cove Eco Resort in Queensland Australia is an award winning environmental success story for Flovac and for our client.

Designing to best environmental practices which included refunds to staying guests if they used less than average electricity and water during their stay.  A vacuum collection system was a natural choice, chosen for its ease of installation and environmental credentials.

2,000 visitors plus staff with a swimming pool, function center, laundry facility, restaurant and marina.

The system at a glance

  • 1 Vacuum Pump Station
  • 2,000 Guests plus Staff
  • Villa’s, apartments and cabins along with a conference facility, restaurants, sporting areas, offices and marina pump out facility
  • 215 Collection Pits
  • Fibre Optic Monitoring System

System Benefits

The developer showed a strong preference for a vacuum sewerage system as he saw it offering significant benefits in this development over each of the alternatives. These benefits were identified as:-

  • Ability to handle low flush toilets thus reducing the ultimate treated water disposal problem
  • Minimal impact on the landscape during construction with shallow trenches
  • Maximum water recovery for reuse in the re-vegetation irrigation system
  • Construction route flexibility thus minimizing the damage to vegetation
  • Ability to transport grey and black water in the one small bore pipe
  • Ability to safely lay all services in the one trench with minimal spacing
  • Zero infiltration and exfiltration
  • Ability of the system to service the entire site with one centralized pump station
  • Ability of the scheme to service the Boardwalk accommodation and even the boat sullage

Couran Cove Web Page

If you would like more information about this project or would like a free concept and budget for your next project please contact Flovac Engineering by clicking here

Vacuum Valve and Collection Sumps were located under the walkways in stainless steel vessels.

 

 

Award winning project for Flovac as a Commerce by Design award in the annual Gold Coast Urban Design Awards

 

Able to handle seasonal flows from different areas within the resort. The remote beach restaurant is 3 km from the main resort

 

Why Hilton Resorts chose a Flovac Vacuum Sewerage System

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The Hilton Salwa Resort is designed to become one of the largest resorts and residential projects in Qatar. Utilizing a Flovac vacuum sewer system the resort is constructed on 257 acres of land in the Salwa area. The beach resort and villas is a massive project that includes a water park, marina, dive center, cinemas, pools, a health club, spa and a considerable retail space. In addition to the rooms and suites in the main hotel building, the resort will also include two small “villages” of family villas. (Hilton Hotels  announcement)

Hilton Salwa Beach Resort and Villas

Flovac was asked to design and supply a vacuum system that would be able to handle the high flows that will ultimately be handled by the Resort. The vacuum system needed to facilitate not only the hotel but also residential areas, restaurants and the marina. The client was aware of the good work which Flovac had done at Reef Island in Bahrain (Read Here) and was particularly impressed with the monitoring system that had been installed.

The monitoring allows operators to see exactly what was happening anywhere in the network including the operation of the vacuum pump station. Mr Willem Gooren one of the founders of Flovac managed the project and was based in the Middle East for extensive periods during the projects establishment and finalization.

Smart and Safe Installation

In sandy soils, especially areas where there is a high water table vacuum systems are ideal as all of the pipework is installed at a shallow depth in the ground. A stepped profile within the pipeline design allows for some utilization of gravity while keeping the pipe shallow.

Installation of vacuum mains is a lot faster than the installation of gravity sewers as there is less requirement to de-water or pre-load the land. HDPE pipe is used often when installing in hot climates and where soil conditions are unstable.

Leak Proof

The use of a Flovac system was also important to ensure that there would be no potential leaks from the system. As all vacuum pipework is under a negative pressure sewage cannot leak from the pipe in the event of a break.

The Vacuum Pump Station is one of the largest stations in the world. Housed in a dry and air conditioned environment the two large collection tanks are connected to five large Busch Mink MM 1202 vacuum pumps. Flovac has used Mink pumps since before 2005 and so has great experience in the correct set up to maximize the ability to handle the large flows required in this project.

 

 

 

 

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.

Glossy Bay Resort and Marina Project opens in the Caribbean

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Flovac’s latest project in the Caribbean has opened in Canouan at Glossy Bay Resort and Marina with Flovac providing a plug and play containerized vacuum system and treatment plant.

The system at the Glossy Bay Marina and Resort will support a luxury marina which will accommodate mega yachts in excess of 100 meters in length. There will also be hotels villa’s, restaurants and other facilities. The island of Canouan is a two hour ferry ride to the main island of St Vincent of the St Vincent and the Grenadines group of islands in the Southern part of the Caribbean.

As the project was quite remote Flovac supplied a containerized plug and play vacuum pump station and treatment plant. All water on the island is supplied by a desalination plant, so water is precious and spared as much as possible. Treatment quality is very important so that this pristine area is not polluted in any way.

The containerized system has been used in deployable situations on a number of projects and is a great way to transport and set up a project. You can read more about Flovac’s deployable solutions HERE

Flovac vacuum sewerage and marine systems have become very well respected among the boating community. Flovac has completed many world class marina facilities around the world, including Italy, Australia, Greece and Spain. It was the completion of the latest super yacht facility at Marina Vela in Barcelona that caught the attention of the owners in Canouan.

You can read more about Flovac’s experience with Marina’s and why a Flovac solution is often chosen in this interview with Flovac’s expert Mr Francisco Rodríguez

There are many positive reasons for using a vacuum system in this type of project. Fast, easy and cheap installation are some of the key attributes, but importantly for this client was the reduced risk of any overflows of sewage into the water area’s. This is a first class resort and the beach and marina areas need to be pristine. The system can also easily be monitored and maintained by the resorts utility personnel as no specialist equipment is required to handle the vacuum system.

 

 

Reef Island Resort Official Opening in Bahrain

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A high profile project and one of the largest scale vacuum sewerage systems ever designed had an official opening this month in Bahrain for its key resort project.

Reef Island decided to use a Flovac vacuum sewerage system due to the ease and speed of installation compared to using a gravity sewer systems. There was also a decision by the developers of the resort that they wanted to use world class environmental best practice and through research had discovered that this is what Flovac delivered.

The whole island is serviced by just a single vacuum station which is completely concealed underground.  The island features not only this world class resort but numerous bungalows, apartment buildings and world class restaurants.

For the special opening Flovac’s Chairman Mr Willem Gooren was invited as a special guest along with members of the Flovac team who were involved with the system development.

To assist with the operations of the vacuum system Flovac has installed a monitoring system that enables the operations center in Holland to provide additional remote support. With our senior operational teams able to review the system in real time, fast communication can occur to assist those based locally.

Prestons Residential Development Vacuum Sewer

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The Flovac Vacuum Pump Station was installed in 2015 to service the Prestons residential development in Marshlands Christchurch and has continued to grow with house sales in the area ahead of schedule.

Every effort has been made by the developer Ngai Tahu to ensure that this medium priced housing development for 8,000 residents is world class.

Environmentally Sensitive Development at Prestons

 

Right next to the vacuum pump station, the Marshland School for children aged 5-13 has been completed. When Master Planning a vacuum sewer system it is always important to consider that any flows from schools will be interrupted during school holidays and weekends. So to ensure that plenty of air is entering

Marshlands School

the system, especially close to the station the system needs to be tuned correctly or have an automatic air inlet system that can be programmed to take the change into account.

 

The vacuum sewerage system is the ideal technology for a development like this as it can be very flexible with new additions over time and is resilient to damage from earthquakes. Unlike low pressure pump systems, the only power requirement is at the vacuum pump station, so if an earthquake interrupts power supply the vacuum sewerage network at Prestons will continue to work as there is a back up generator located at the station.

Another resilient feature of the Flovac system is that if any of the vacuum mains break or rupture during an earthquake, the negative pressure in the pipe ensures that no sewage will leak out. A low pressure pump system operates on positive pressure, so if a pipeline breaks sewage will surcharge from the pipe into the surrounding area. In an environmentally sensitive area like Prestons, that could be a disaster.

Another benefit of the vacuum sewer system is its ability to handle high flows into the collection system. A large supermarket complex is being planned in the neighborhood complete with a Foodstuffs supermarket, cafe’s and restaurants. Already built is a large BP service station which houses a cafe and a Jetwash. The Flovac system handles the commercial premises and can handle any flows from the car washing facility.

On the right side of the BP Jetwash you can see three of the Flovac pillars that house the air vents that are required to admit air into the vacuum sewer. These are connected to three separate valve pits which are served via a splitter to handle the high flows. The pillars will also house the wireless monitoring system that is being rolled out. The monitoring system will alert operators to any valve faults or potential overflows from the pit.

The operators looking after the system have been very happy with the operational benefits and have had very few callouts. As the operators have little to no contact with sewage and have no requirements to enter the property of the residents they see real benefits relative to how the low pressure pumps have performed. Many low pressure pumps are located on the property of the resident and any maintenance often leaves residual sewage on the lawns of the residents.