Pumping Technology into Sewage Pumping Stations

Clarence Walters

Greater Toronto Airports Authority

September 24, 2018

Toronto Pearson Growth Stats

• Number of flights in 2014: 432,000 / 2017 : 465,555

• Number of passengers 2014 : 38.6m / 2017: 47.1m an increase of 2.8m over 2016.

• Current projected growth percentage: 7% - 8%.

• Projected Growth numbers: 64 million passengers by 2033.

• Number of Restaurants in Terminals 1 and 3: 2014 -69 and at end of 2017 – 91 dining venues.

• Number of washrooms across both terminals 384

Prematurely failing Drainage

Root Cause Analysis

Revision of Design Standards

New Drainage Piping Material

New FOG removal Technology

Our Problems did not end there !!

• Increased number of passengers, employees not only translated to the need for more food establishments but also increased use of facilities

• We do not have separate main drain lines for washrooms and restaurants

• Branch drain lines from both washrooms and restaurants connect to the main drains.

• There are over 380 washrooms between both terminals – 1200 toilets

Drainage System Structure

• Elevation of the Terminals are well below the regions sanitary drain lines

• Drain lines in the terminals empty into sump pits in the service levels of the terminals.

• Pumps in the pits pump this sewage out of the terminals into our main sewage lift stations

• From there they are pumped out to the sanitary sewer lines.

Root Cause Analysis

Problems encountered1. Excessive amounts of toilet paper and long lengths of paper

towel being used as seat liners which were not breaking down and causing blockages in the trunk lines and pumps

2. Needles and sanitary products disposed down the drains floating at the top and not being ejected by the pumps

3. High build up of paper on the surface and sediment at the bottom of the pits (needed further investigation)

4. Residual FOG floating on the surface, causing build up on the

sides and floats, also decaying and causing bad odours

5. Sewage Sump pits in the terminals were not designed for this capacity, increased growth, lack of additional space for new pit is putting a strain on the system.

High Priority Trunk Line - Terminals to SLS

• Back up caused flooding into the terminal service level

• Our first priority was to install back water valves and monitoring equipment to detect levels of the roadside manhole pits

Back Water Valve T-1 Service Roadway

Control Panel Receiving Antenna

Inner Roadway

Transmitter

Exploring & Developing Solutions

• 1st issue - Paper towel Elimination

-Explored option of using hand dryers

-Noise levels

-Slip and falls

-Cleaning frequency(ASQ)

Customer surveys, preference was and

leaned towards paper towel and so we

agreed on size of the sheet dispensed

on the cut.Faucet+Dryer

Hand Dryers

Exploring & Developing Solutions

• 2nd issue - Needles and Sanitary product

- Provide / increase number and location of sharps

containers and bins washrooms washroom stalls

- Incorporated as part of the

washroom redevelopment plan

Sharps Containers

Evaluation of the terminal pump stations

• Some terminal pits comprising of grinders

• Most terminal pits had 2 pumps

• Always an exception - some pits were sectioned off elevator / escalator pits and too small and shallow

• High build up of paper on surface (location) and sediment at the bottom of the pits

• Residual FOG floating on the surface, decaying and causing bad odor

• Every pit had a different manufacturer of pump

Sewage pit problems

Grinder E-142 Sectioned – Converted Sump Pit

FOG Floating on Surface FOG Sticking to Floats

Remedying the problem of paper, FOG and sediment buildupStep 1

• Looked at style of pumps and type of impellers on the pumps

• We have the 3000 series Flygt Sanitation pumps, units come with interchangeable impellers depending on the application

• We upgraded to the N-technology

Remedying the problem of paper, FOG and sediment buildupStep 2

• 3000 series submersible pumps can be fitted with a 'Flush Valve’

• Where we can not install the flush valve we have added mixers

• This breaks down the tissue paper, keeps the sediment and FOG suspended and helps it get ejected by the pump (incl. syringes)

• We also added an ultrasonic level detector (all tied to our BMS)

Flush Valve Mixer / Agitator

Flush Valve Flow Diagram

How the flush valve

Pictures of our installations – Flush Valves

3085 Pump c/wFlush valve E142 Paper in the Pit E142 Surface buildup

E142 After Pump Cycle

Pictures of our installations - Mixers

T-3 HBS Pit Mixer on a Pole Mounting

Surface Build Up Mixer in Operation

Sewage Lift Station Terminal 1• Comprises of a wet well and dry chamber

• Wet well has 2 chambers / sections connected by a sluice gate

• 2 grinders on the inlet channels, each inlet has a sluice gate

• 4 Flygt 3301 pumps in the dry chamber

• Each wet well is served by 2 pumps (back up / redundancy)

• PLC controlled, all controls are on the dry side

• Station has cameras, full monitored remotely by our BMS

• PLC program software is very basic, hardware was extremely old and the company who did the programming holds rights to software and programming. We are reliant on them for troubleshooting and system changes, which have not been done since its inception

Terminal 1 SLS – Pump Level

Wet Well 1

Lifting Davit Arm4 – Sewage Pumps

Wet Well 2 & Spare Sewage Pump Header Valves

Opening & Header Valve

Terminal 1 SLS – Dry Side – Controls Level

Entrance to Contol Room Control Panel

Monitoring CamerasChannel Grinder

Air Analyzers & other Controls

Controls and Exhaust Fans

Terminal 1 SLS – Wet Well

Surface Buildup in Wet Well 1

Surface Build up in Wet Well 2

Grinder in inlet ChannelsExhaust Plenum Sluice Gates

Terminal 3 Sewage Lift Station• Terminal 3 has its own sewage lift station (6A)

• Station has a wet well and contains 3 Flygt 3153 submersible pumps.

• PLC controls are in a weather proof cabinet onsite

• Remotely monitored by our BMS

• PLC program software is very basic, hardware was extremely old and the company who did the programming holds rights to software and programming. We are reliant on them for troubleshooting and system changes, which have not been done since its inception

• Aggressive Quarterly PM Program and monthly visual checks for both stations

Terminal 3 – SLS Controls Sewage Pit & Exhaust Fan

Control Valves View of the Pit

Control Panel

PLC controls

Spare Submersible Pump

Quarterly PM Program

• Check Coolant

• Megger the pumps

• Current Draw

• Check Flow Rates

• System Pressure

• Run hours

• Inspect impellers

• Check of the station

Assessment of our Pump Controllers T1 / T3

• PLC from different manufacturers

• Programming and support from 2 different vendors

• We do not take care of programming or changes

• Response time in case of failure is of concern

• Flexibility in programming limited

• High costs for programming, retrieving data

• Size and location of the vendors of concern

Assessment of our Pump Controllers

Terminal 1 Terminal 3

Options for Upgrading

• Approached current vendors who proposed upgrading hardware and using the same software

• Researched the market for sewage pumping station controllers

• Heard of ‘Pump Station Managers’ specifically designed for sewage lift stations.

What are Pump Station Managers

Pump Station ManagerWeather Resistant for Outdoor Environments

Touch Pad for indoor Environments

Pump Station Manager

• Next generation of technology for water and wastewater pump stations

• Combines the best of PLC’s, RTU’s and pump controllers into a comprehensive & intuitive package

• Integrates numerous control panel components, lowering control panel costs

• Pre-programmed logic designed to significantly reduce operating costs

Benefits …• Reduces control panel costs – smaller enclosure size,

lower design costs, less wiring, fewer internal devices, lower deployment and commissioning costs, lower fabrication and installation costs

• Easy to configure via ‘Setup Wizard’

• Built in local SCADA without added cost of HMI hardware and software

• Remote control programming – minimizes site visits

• Cuts maintenance troubleshooting costs

Benefits… cont.• Establishes pump efficiency

• Measures energy used by each pump

• Decreases pump station electrical consumption

• Pump reversal feature

• Trending pump efficiency

• Determines ROI for maintenance procedures

• Valuable pre programmed functions ...(Odor reduction, max run time, max pumps to start per hour, minimize

excessive start, blocked pump detection & predictive alarming)

Features of Pump station Manager

• Max run time and run most efficient pump

• Clean the well out and have multiple set points

• Generator Profile and Locked level

• Optional VFD module and VFD settings

• Mixer / Agitator control

• Security key and Predictive Critical Alarms

• Flow without a flowmeter

• Save / copy configurations , Data logger

Features of Pump station Manager .. Cont.

• History page / 620 tags / remote monitoring

• Connects to any modern SCADA

• Rapid hardware changeout

• Quick programming recovery

• Odor reduction

• Blocked pump detection

• Pump fault detection

Demonstration to our team

• Carried out information sessions, for our engineering and maintenance teams

• Site tours to various sites

• We wanted to try and match

something similar to and Airport

• What better than a ….

University campus + housing Demonstration Unit

Pictures from our site tour

WesternUniversity

Sewage Pit with Davit Arm

No Smells

Opening

Pictures from our site tour

Sewage Pit with Dual Pumps

Opening Guarding

Optional Connection

Pictures from our site tour

Our Ultimate Goal

Conclusion• Our root cause analysis and research proved to be

very beneficial to us to determine solutions to make our system more reliable.

• We have moved forward and have started to upgrade our sewage pits with the addition of new mechanical equipment and controllers for the pumping stations.

Questions ?