SOLVIA BioCascade PRO is a block-modular wastewater treatment unit in which the main flow passes through the functional zones by gravity, while the pumps, the valves and the sensors are taken out of the process tanks into a separate dry service compartment with predictive monitoring of the pump circuits.
The central idea of the development is to separate the treatment process from the service part of the plant. In ordinary modular treatment works the serviced equipment stands inside the tanks; here the main flow passes through the functional zones largely by gravity, the pumps, the valves and the sensors are moved out into a separate dry service compartment, and only fixed hydraulic elements remain inside the process tanks. Every pump circuit is monitored by flow, pressure, vibration, temperature and the electrical parameters of the motor, and the control system picks up the signs of clogging, wear and overheating in advance.
It is meant for the local treatment works of sites where a plant has to accept the sewage and deliver treated water and also to remain serviceable for many years. The unit is built either as a single block-modular body or as separate transportable modules, and the same operating architecture underlies the retrofitting of existing works: the pump circuits are brought out into a reachable service area, and flow meters, sensors, bypasses and standby pumps are added to them.
Modular construction wins on manufacture, delivery and installation, but the operating part of such plants most often repeats a standard solution: tanks, submersible pumps, submersible mixers, internal recirculation, aeration and a control cabinet. While the equipment is sound the difference is invisible. It appears at the first repair: a submersible pump clogs, a mixer fails, a cable or a motor needs replacing, and the machine has to be lifted out of the tank. The tank is then partly emptied, and the staff work in a contaminated environment or in a confined space.
The second consequence of the standard architecture is less visible and costs more. Without flow meters and pressure sensors the actual state of the pump circuits stays unknown: a pump turns but delivers nothing, recirculation runs below the design figure, mixing in the anoxic zone falls short. Clogging develops gradually and becomes obvious only through a decline in treatment — through sludge carry-over, odour and an unstable discharge. Ordinary automation records the failure at that moment, whereas the decline had been going on well before it.
The functional zones of the unit are arranged so that the working liquid levels, or the elevations of the overflow pipes, step down one after another along the path of the water. The main flow passes through the treatment zones largely by gravity, without a constant pumped lift between every stage. The consequences are direct: the need to pump the main flow falls, the total head the pumps have to overcome drops, and the energy spent on moving water inside the unit is reduced. The hydraulic scheme becomes simpler, and operation in the normal regime steadier.
In SOLVIA BioCascade PRO all serviced pumping equipment is placed outside the process tanks, in a separate dry compartment: the pumps for return and excess sludge, for the hydraulic mixing of the denitrification zone, for the recirculation of the nitrate-bearing mixed liquor and for the flushing circuit, the standby units, the shut-off valves, the flow meters, the pressure, vibration, temperature, current and power sensors, and the bypass and flushing lines. Inside the tanks there remain the overflow pipes, the suction manifolds, the distribution pipes, the nozzles and the inlet and outlet connections — elements with neither a drive nor moving parts.
Mixing in the denitrification zone is done without a submersible mixer: a pump in the dry compartment draws liquid from the bottom part of the zone and returns it through tangential or floor-mounted pressure nozzles, creating a horizontal or a spiral circulation with no air supplied. Anoxic conditions are preserved, the intensity of the circulation is adjustable, and the only serviced item of the circuit stands in a dry room. The operator reaches the pumps, the valves and the sensors without emptying the tanks and without entering them.
The control unit holds the set flow of each circuit through variable-frequency drives and at the same time watches for the signs of a pre-failure state. A falling flow with rising pressure or motor current reads as clogging, rising vibration points to bearing wear, imbalance or cavitation, rising temperature to overheating. The diagnosis is made on the whole set of parameters, and the decline is visible before it tells on the treatment; for sites with remote or irregular servicing this means moving service out of the emergency mode and into the planned one.
The response to a deviation is built into the same scheme: the circuit is switched to the bypass, the flushing line is opened, or the standby pump is started. Flushing clears the pipeline, the suction connection and the manifold with a reverse flow and calls for no emptying of the process tank, while the bypass holds the process flow as long as the duty pump is off for service. The operator shuts the valves, disconnects the pump at the flange and works in the dry compartment — with redundancy and a bypass in place the process is not stopped.
SOLVIA BioCascade PRO is SOLVIA's own technological development in the field of block-modular wastewater treatment units; the technology has been implemented by SOLVIA specialists and is protected by a patent. The solution combines the cascading gravity movement of the main flow, a dry service compartment, external pump circuits, air-free hydraulic mixing of the denitrification zone and predictive monitoring of the pumping equipment. Structural parameters, control regimes, layout decisions and particular technological features are selected individually for the site at hand.
Tell us about your site — our engineer will prepare a process design, a specification and a quotation within one business day.