Blower Efficiency Achieved for Dorking Sewage Treatment Works

In wastewater applications such as Sewage Treatment Works (STW), aeration systems can typically account for between 40 and 80 per cent of a plant’s total energy consumption. Where equipment is old and technology dated, other factors such as downtime and ongoing maintenance issues are a further concern. With this in mind, Thames Water worked with Xylem to replace existing blowers at one of their key sites with new state-of-the-art technology.

Dorking STW is a plant in Dorking, Surrey, serving a population equivalent of approximately 11,500 people. The existing equipment installed on site was highly unreliable and inefficient utilising a conventional activated sludge process with fine bubble diffused aeration fed by three 55kW bi-lobe positive displacement blowers.

For Thames Water the goal was simple - to replace the existing system with modern technology. As a result, the business aimed to secure significant energy savings and reduced maintenance requirements, which would in turn provide the operating team with confidence in the system’s ability to deliver the biological secondary treatment process.