SITTARD-GELEEN, NETHERLANDS The municipality of Sittard-Geleen is located in the province of Limburg, southeast Netherlands with about 96,000 inhabitants. The town operates 150 pumping stations – about 100 with ABS submersible sewage pumps – for wastewater treatment and only high-quality equipment is chosen for this to ensure the town maintains a high level of service. Moreover, experience has shown that the best equipment saves the town significant costs over the long term because less time and labour results from minimal equipment failure and downtime.

A trial with an ABS EffeX prototype
ABS has now launched the world’s first series of submersible sewage pumps incorporating an IE3 premium-efficiency motor – the ABS EffeX range. This was partly in response to forthcoming legislation in many countries, including the European Union, to introduce more stringent legislation in order to cut energy consumption and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases to combat global warming. Before the main launch, ABS built a number of prototype pumps for testing in the field by selected customers. As ABS has most pumps installed in the town’s pumping stations, and also provides a monthly control of the pumps, it was natural that Sittard-Geleen wastewater treatment engineers were approached to see whether they would like to to test an ABS EffeX prototype. They readily agreed to do so.

No blockage during 8 months
It was agreed to test the prototype in the locality of Visvijver for pumping an overflow of sewage water at the buffer pump station. This site had problems with pump blockage because of the heavy load of rags and other solids occurring here, especially after a dry period causing low water levels. Marcel Lardinoye, dewatering specialist, and Jo Spee, civil engineering planner with the Sittard-Geleen municipality followed the trail from the very start. The ABS EffeX prototype pump used during the trial period incorporated a Contrablock Plus impeller – which ensures that the free solids passage is never reduced below 75 mm – with a DN80 connection. The result of the trial was that during the 8 months the prototype was in operation, there was no obstruction at the troublesome Visvijver site. This motivated Sittard-Geleen to purchase two pumps from the ABS EffeX range because of savings gained in terms of fewer man-hours spent having to unblock the pumps, as well as lower energy consumption.

Two pleased engineers
The comments of Marcel Lardinoye and Job Spee after the successful trial speak for themselves.

“The pump ran smoothly from early June 2009 and onwards, and we experienced no clogging during the trial period. This is 100% improvement in performance! The most important thing is that the submersible sewage pump with a premium-efficiency motor achieved the least blockage possible. That we also save operational costs because of lower energy consumption is a welcome bonus,” exclaims Jo Spee.

“We regard the trial as very successful. The excellent cooperation and experience with ABS gave us confidence that good results would be achieved, and that’s why we decided to run the trail. In this town we know ABS as a service partner who delivers good results. The reporting, material and expertise of ABS engineers are also very good,” said Marcel Lardinoye.