Growing School, Vanishing Clogs

Aug. 8, 2018
Omani university utilizes new pumping technology to combat clogs
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Operators of a wastewater pumping station at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman were facing serious clogging issues. They had to frequently lift the station’s pump and manually remove waste solids and grease buildup. Furthermore, as the station couldn’t handle the flow during peak hours, it was not unusual to have over flows that would reach the adjacent roads.

In an effort to solve these issues, the university agreed to install and trial the Flygt Concertor, a new wastewater pumping system with integrated intelligence designed to ensure clean wet wells, clog-free operation and drastically reduced unplanned vacuum-cleaning callouts.

The trial was planned to last for four months, but after the first number of weeks, the difference in performance and efficiency was deemed to be remarkable. The Flygt Concertor not only kept the pump and sump continuously clean, but also completely eliminated the common sewage spills during peak flows.

The Problem

Sultan Qaboos University, located in the Muscat region of Oman, houses approximately 16,000 students. Both the student and staff populations have steadily increased during the past several years, and the University’s administration is focused on finding efficient and sustainable solutions for all its services.

The Solution

In September 2015, the operators of a pump station located at one of the student residences agreed to install and trial Xylem’s new wastewater pumping system, Flygt Concertor, in an effort to solve serious clogging issues as well as frequent overflows caused by peak flows.

The Results

The positive results were clear as early as during the first week of the trial. Before installing the Flygt Concertor, operators had to frequently lift the pump up to remove waste solids caught in the impeller. With Xylem’s new wastewater pumping system, the pump clogging was completely eliminated. Furthermore, the cleaning of the sump, which previously required the services of a sewage vacuum truck to manually remove accumulated grease and sediment, dramatically improved.

“We had to call the vacuum truck once a month and have them manually remove sediment and grease,” said Ramesh Rathinavel, senior mechanical engineer at Sultan Qaboos University. “This is now a thing of the past – with Flygt Concertor, this hasn’t been a problem, and we have saved both time and money.”

As Xylem’s wastewater pumping system with integrated intelligence automatically adapts to pumping conditions to deliver optimal pumping performance, overflows in the vicinity of the pump station have also been eliminated.

“The Flygt pumping system is managing the peak flow without any problem and has eliminated the flooding issues,” Rathinavel said.

On top of the benefits delivered by Flygt Concertor’s pump and sump-cleaning functions, the system’s compact design allowed it to easily fit into the existing station at Sultan Qaboos University. Concertor’s system design results in compact control cabinets, as traditional components – motor protection, starters, variable frequency drives, climate control equipment, etc. – are either not required or built into the pump. This reduces the size of the control cabinet and, at the same time, enables more monitoring functionalities.

“Overall, our experience with Flygt Concertor has been very positive – the pumping system has been operating trouble-free since it was installed,” Rathinavel said. “We no longer have to contend with clogging, breakdowns or overflows. On top of that, our energy bill has decreased.” 

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