Xylem has won a contract valued at approximately $2.75 million to supply Xylem's Wedeco-brand ultraviolet (UV) technologies to a wastewater treatment facility in the Vigo region of southwest Spain.
With a treatment capacity of 147,000 cubic meters per day, benefiting 800,000 inhabitants, the facility will be the largest bio-filtration and UV wastewater treatment plant in Spain. It will also be one of the biggest in Europe when the two-phase development is completed in 2016.
While construction work for the new biofiltration plant is being carried out, a bypass treatment system will be put in place. This consists of primary wastewater treatment followed by Xylem's Wedeco Duron UV disinfection system. This will safely protect marine sea life and bathers from pathogens until the new biofiltration plant is ready to operate. The Wedeco Duron system was selected as its performance to disinfect low quality wastewater has been extensively tested and proven to be highly efficient*. Furthermore, the new and innovative system provides several benefits to operators in terms of low maintenance and space requirements. Consisting of 1,100 UV lamps, this will be the largest installation of the new Wedeco Duron UV system to date.
Alejandro Torrecillas Almansa, responsible for electromechanical equipment and processes with UTE EDAR Lagares, the joint venture charged with overseeing the project said, "We were searching for an environmentally sound disinfection solution which will ensure that the primary treated effluent is reintroduced to the water system without any negative impact on the local environment. The extensive performance testing of Xylem's Wedeco Duron was one of the reasons this system was selected, as well as its compact size and low UV lamp count."
Following the construction of the biofiltration treatment system, the water quality will improve quite significantly. As the Wedeco Duron system is a modular, intelligently controlled system it can easily be adjusted to suit higher quality incoming water in the future.
"Wedeco Duron is a highly flexible and high performing system which makes it an ideal choice for this project," said Kirsten Meyer, product manager for Xylem. "Due to the innovative inclined lamp arrangement and its highly energy efficient 600 watt Wedeco Ecoray lamps, total UV lamp count can be significantly reduced and maintenance simplified. We are very excited to be involved in this significant and complex installation."
Disinfection with UV light is a reliable, well-established technology that inactivates pathogens including bacteria, viruses and parasites in seconds. UV continues to grow in popularity as a result of its many benefits; it is an all-in-one system, simple to operate, requiring a small amount of space and a low operating and maintenance investment. It is also very environmentally sustainable with no residuals or toxic by-products.
*Extensive testing to verify Duron's disinfection performance has been conducted by WEDECO experts and validated by industry leading, third party consultants Carollo Engineers.
