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Gold Coast Marina Vacuum Pump Station Upgrade – A Challenge

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The Gold Coast Marine Precinct is a dedicated industrial zone in Coomera, on the Gold Coast of Queensland Australia. The precinct supports marine manufacturing, servicing, repairs and refits of recreational boats. It is one of the most advanced and respected marine industry cluster developments in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the only purpose built marine precinct in Australia. Covering 250 hectares, it it is home to some of Australias most prestigious motor yacht builders and industry leaders.

It includes Riviera Australia a winner of Australian Maritime Industry Exporter of the year on multiple occasions.

Maritomo  Handcrafted Luxury Offshore Motor Yachts

The Boat Works – a boatyard, marina and superyacht facility

The Gold Coast City Marina & Shipyard   has over 90 expert businesses looking after a wide range of clients. They have won numerous awards for their facilities.

 

Related: Barcelona Port vacuum Sewerage System

The Challenge

All of the wastewater within the facility is collected via a vacuum sewerage system. Over the years the facility has grown and the requirements of what a sewerage needs to do has changed. How to handle the larger superyachts for example. How to reduce energy costs. And how to ensure that all equipment was the latest technology and would reduce any risks of sewage entering the waterways.

The hardest part of the challenge was to fit new vacuum pump station equipment into a very tight existing space. The upgrade needed to take place with minimal disruption to any of the businesses in the precinct.

Related: Sydney Superyacht Marina Upgrade

As the Vacuum Pump Station is located outside of the precinct’s grounds it is operated and maintained by Gold Coast Council.

Power Saving and Efficiency

The goal set by Council was to reduce the vacuum pump cycle time from around 6 minutes to less than 3 minutes. This would give a 50{f2ac4d1e1d40dc2e2d9280a1dfa90d854b2d8c80eba743affa37fc4ce2e16def} reduction in power usage throughout the day.

There was also a request to increase the discharged flow from the system by 15{f2ac4d1e1d40dc2e2d9280a1dfa90d854b2d8c80eba743affa37fc4ce2e16def} by using exactly the same specified discharge pumps that were currently installed. We managed to increase their flow from 18 L/S to 21 L/S.

Flovac’s engineers worked on the problem creating 3D modeling of the station to ensure that the equipment would fit the space. Then the operations group went over the plans to make sure that the operability of the system would not be compromised.

In the months after commissioning there has been a clear improvement and lowering of energy costs. Vacuum pump run times have decreased from 17 hours per day and are now running for only 6.7 hours per day. They previously had been running 3 x 500 m3/hr pumps most of the day with huge energy costs.

More information on Flovac’s Marina and Port Projects

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

 

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.