Ovivo’s new standard range of Rotating Biological Contactors (RBCs) offers a competitive alternative in wastewater treatment. Compared to some treatment systems, RBCs can offer a very cost-effective solution – and with their low power motors, they are also environmentally friendly.
The standard RBCs are based on serving population equivalents of 300, 400, 500, 600, 700 and 800, based on 180l/hd/day for 95%ile 20:30 (BOD:SS), assuming 30% BOD reduction in primary settlement. They are built off-site for rapid delivery and start-up.
Historical problems
In the 1980s and early 1990s, it is fair to say that low-cost, poorly designed RBCs gave the process a bad name and catastrophic failures were common place and very expensive to repair.
During the 1990s Ovivo (formerly Copa Ltd and later Eimco Water Technologies) joined forces with Severn Trent Water and Cranfield University to gain a thorough understanding of the RBC process and to ‘design out’ the reasons for the mechanical failures - documented as one of the largest mechanical surveys of operational RBC units ever undertaken.
The resulting new generation RBC design has been in use now for well over 20 years. With several hundred of these improved standard RBCs in operation we are quietly confident that we have successfully allayed industry fears of premature RBC failure.
Improvement to design
To find new ways of manufacturing RBC units more cost-effectively, and to make our offer as attractive as possible, we have systematically investigated every component of our original design - right down to the very nuts and bolts. As a result we are now far more confident in our ability to bid competitively on projects. In addition to producing an attractively priced RBC, our series of significant design improvements mean that we can now meet additional customer needs that directly relate to cost savings - such as delivering a fully off-site assembled unit, which saves many hours of installation.
Past concerns about RBCs are now just that – a thing of the past. At Ovivo we’re proud to have brought about a far better understanding of what makes a modern day RBC a perfectly viable and reliable option for wastewater treatment.
