Council has just installed a new Ultra Violet (UV) disinfection unit at the Bellingen Sewerage Treatment Plant.
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Council’s Deputy General Manager, Matt Fanning said the unit cost around $457,000 which represents a major investment in improving environmental outcomes and reducing power consumption at the site.
The new UV unit is an enclosed reactor instead of an open channel unit. That means all the 32 UV lamps are enclosed in a stainless steel pipe evenly spaced ensuring there is no short circuiting of the effluent.
The new unit is also flow paced using an electromagnetic flow meter linked to the controller. During low flows the unit only runs at 50% power, incorporated into that is a transmissivity meter which measures how clear the water is which also lowers the power when there is high clarity.
The unit is smart enough to know what the exact dose of UV radiation the effluent is receiving and ramps power to the lamps up and down according to flow and clarity so a minimum dose is always achieved for effective disinfection without wasting power.
The old UV unit has been kept operational so in flood situations it can be activated ensuring there is no wet weather bypass of the disinfection process.