UV Disinfection Ensures Coal Power Research Facility Meets Strict Wastewater Discharge Regulations

UV disinfection specialist Berson (Netherlands) has helped the Wilsonville Power Systems Development Facility in Alabama, USA comply with strict wastewater discharge regulations. In four years of operation, contaminants have been kept within permit limits with minimal maintenance.

The Wilsonville Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) is a research and development centre that tests coal-based technologies before they are implemented at power supply facilities. In 2006, the growing plant employed 200 people and produced a wastewater flow of about 95 litres per minute. With its size expected to double in the near future, the facility was required by state and local regulators to start disinfecting its wastewater. The existing wastewater treatment facility in Wilsonville was too far away for the facility to connect. Therefore, the PSDF decided to build its own wastewater treatment facility.

After evaluating competing products, Wilsonville PSDF decided that Berson’s OpenLine UV disinfection system most closely met with their specifications and budget requirements. The OpenLine is an open channel disinfection unit, which uses low pressure, high output UV lamps to destroy microorganisms’ reproductive abilities on a cellular level. The facility installed the OpenLine system in 2007 as the last item in the plant process, providing final treatment of the water before it is discharged into a local river.

The state permit required that no single sample of the water leaving the Wilsonville PSDF could have more than 200 faecal colonies per 100 ml. The OpenLine system has provided the necessary disinfection required to meet the site’s permit. In addition, the system offers a compact footprint and requires virtually no maintenance. The OpenLine has operated for 21,000 hours since installation, meeting disinfection requirements without needing UV lamp replacement.