Upgrading your Vacuum Pump Station

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.