Pumping projects can seem straightforward on paper: water flows into one place and is required to move to another. In reality there are numerous factors that affect the distance between two points, which include elevation of the ground, flow rate, solids, pressure, storage capacity, and access to maintenance.
Romtec Utilities begins the design of a pumping station by defining the operational conditions, rather than choosing equipment from the catalog. The project’s requirements could be used to come up with initial designs and budgetary figures.
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Start with a simple question: How are we doing?
The engineering is immediately changed.
The flow of domestic sewage can be subject to significant fluctuations throughout the day. The wastewater lift station will be required whenever gravity conveyance does not or is not working. Engineers should therefore take into consideration the expected flow, the conditions of peak and pumping capacities, wet well behavior, discharge requirements as well as how the facility will operate and maintained.
Different challenges are presented by industrial water. A manufacturing or processing facility may require moving oily, caustic, high-temperature, or high-pressure fluids. Romtec Utilities designs systems for industrial applications ranging from food processing and power generation, data centers, pharmaceutical waste, gasoline and oil-based facilities.
Rainfall can trigger a totally different operating cycle
Stormwater systems could for long periods be inactive and unable to handle activity and then face substantial quantities during a hurricane.
A stormwater pump station connected with a detention reservoir, for instance, has to work in conjunction with the larger drainage strategy. Runoff enters the basin, temporary storage controls the immediate volume, and a pumping system then moves the water collected towards an approved discharge point.
Romtec Utilities offered this type of solution to an Norco, California business park. The plan called for an emptying pumping station a detention facility into the public stormwater drainage system. The station needed be constructed as a part of the drainage infrastructure rather than treated as a separate piece of equipment.
“Package” Doesn’t need to be Off-the-Shelf
A common misconception is that a package pumping system is simply a predetermined collection of components.
Packaging is a method to link the most important components of a particular project. The valves and pumps can be selected based on their job specifications.
This method is particularly useful for systems that need to be connected with an existing infrastructure. In municipal and industrial structures, there’s not an infinite amount of space or complete clean environment for the installation. Equipment may have to be placed within existing structures, piping, electrical systems, and operating schedules.
Capacity Planning Has Real Consequences
The cost of undersizing rises when the facility grows.
In Portland International Airport, Romtec Utilities developed and built the sewer interceptor station for the PDX Next expansion. The new station was built to provide double the peak flow capacity of the previous system as the airport’s facilities grew.
This case illustrates a fundamental engineering principal: Design conditions should not be limited to the amount of work a facility is able to handle on a typical afternoon. Engineers must also know what happens when demand peaks.
The work isn’t over when the equipment arrives
Eventually, drawings and calculations need to be transformed into an operating system. Installation coordination, startup, testing documentation, and user knowledge all affect long-term performance.
What happens following the installation of a pumping device determines the quality of the system. The decisions made in the initial design are apparent when the flow increases when major storms occur or a maintenance plan is necessary.
For Romtec Utilities, integrating those options into a project-specific pumping solution helps turn the equipment pieces into an infrastructure specifically designed for the conditions they’ll be confronted with.