Vacuum Pumping Systems and Flovac
We’ve been working with Flovac for quite a while. Our relationship started off with them using our older controller - the MT2PC (actually a pair of MT2PCs) for their vacuum pump stations. They’ve now standardized on the MultiSmart Pump Station Manager and there’s a News item on the main MultiTrode website.
There’s a great 3 minute video about how vacuum pumping works on their home page, www.flovac.com
John Radinoff, the Flovac Managing Director, explained to me why vacuum pumping is gaining ground: ”These systems are used in areas difficult to sewer using traditional technologies. Ideally suited for areas with high water table, rocky sites or flat ground, the system has proven to be extremely economical in such topography.
Eliminating infiltration and exfiltration, vacuum sewerage is highly regarded by many EPA’s around the world and has proven to be the sewerage technology with the lowest carbon footprint. This is the reason why it is the naturally preferred choice of sewerage in high profile sustainable projects like Masdar in the UAE.”
It’s clear that gravity sewer is really expensive when you have a high water table, rocky terrain or very low density housing.
There’s a good Wikipedia article about vaccum pumping.
Pressure sewer technology covers a similar list of advantages over gravity sewer.
For MultiSmart, the Flovac application is a 4-pump 2-well configuration. The “wells” are independent. On one side we are measuring the vacuum pressure and based on that starting and stopping the pair of vacuum pumps. On the liquid side, we are measuring the liquid level in the well and starting and stopping the wastewater pumps.
Sounds like a good application for the MultiSmart. Is the configuration available for other users, or are the setup steps documented in an Application Note?
You can setup 4-pumps, 2 independent wells through the Setup Wizard, but I believe there was some customization of the application. Rob Gleadhill developed the project and he is away training for a few days next week but when he’s back he can add some more to this post.