Package Sewage Treatment System Case Study
Large Tourist Accomodation & Camping Site Temporary Sewage Treatment Plant using the BMS Blivet Case Study
Project Overview:
This case study focuses on how the BMS Blivet enabled the expansion of a Tourist Accomodation/Camping site in Brittany, France in two phases to proceed. This expansion would not have been possible without the use of the BMS Blivet as the local towns sewage treatment plant do not have any extra capacity.
Many construction projects, whether it is housing, commercial or tourism projects are being held up or prevented from going ahead due to the local municipal (village/town) sewage treatment plant not being able to accept any further organic load. A solution to this is to treat the sewage at the location, in this a camping site with challets and mobile homes, so that the organic load from the residents is reduced to a level comparable with the discharge standard required from the municipal sewage treatment plant. This means that there will not be any increase in the organic load sent to the overloaded municipal plant, enabling a development that would otherwise be postponed, or completely cancelled, to go ahead. The temporary treatment of the sewage will take place until increased capacity in the municipal plant is available. For such a temporary sewage treatment project, a completely self-contained, very compact, modular and portable system that does not require a concrete surround is a necessity. A system that also allows the flexibility of above/below ground installation is a big advantage. In this case, a big requirement was the ability to fit on a truck fully assemble and ‘ready to go’ due to the package sewage being delivered from Ireland to France. A package sewage treatment system that can accomplish all of the above and more is the BMS Blivet ‘all in one’ Package Sewage Treatment system.
Project Details:
COMPLETION DATE
2022-2024
CLIENT:
Symbiose Technologies
BRIEF:
To design, manufacture, install and commission a robust turnkey, compact & low maintenance BMS Blivet Package Sewage Treatment Plant to treat the sewage generated by an extension to Tourist Accomodation and Camping Site in Brittany France on temporary basis until the local municipal system was upgraded. The temporary WWTP was installed in two phases.
VALUE
Undisclosed.
Introduction
One of BMS French partners who specialise in the provision of temporary sewage treatment solutions, Symbiose, asked BMS to propose a temporary sewage treatment solution for one of their clients who owned a large ‘camping site’ in Brittany consisting of fixed chalets and camping pitches. The campsite wanted to expand but their local towns sewage treatment plant was at full capacity. A further consideration was that the temporary plant would only be switched on during the tourist season and would be subject to varying loads. They needed a true ‘all in one’ system which did not require extra tanks, could be installed on the corner of the site, commissioned rapidly, had very low maintenance requirements and could be expanded in steps as required.
A well recognised global phenomenon, is that many areas with high tourism levels, experience huge increases in population during the tourism season. Local infrastructure often struggles to cope with this influence, which can be many multiples of the normal resident population. This is even more pronounced in more rural locations. One such resource that is put under huge pressure is the local municipal sewage treatment plant. The plant often does not have enough capacity to cope with flow surges caused by an influx of tourists and therefore can be easily overloaded leading to poor treatment or indeed mechanical failure in the plant. Often it is difficult to secure funding for an upgrade and therefore local authorities have to limit any new developments, even though it is bringing much required income into the area.
A solution to this is treat the sewage at the tourism development such as accommodation, campsite, activity centre etc, so that the extra organic load generated by the influx of tourists is reduced to a level comparable with the discharge standard required from the municipal sewage treatment plant or indeed, safe for direct discharge.. This means that there will not be any increase in the organic load sent to the overloaded municipal plant, enabling a tourism development to go ahead or expand. Otherwise, these developments would have to be postponed or completely cancelled. This can be done by the installation of a suitable temporary package sewage treatment system at the tourism site until the extension of an existing or a new municipal sewage treatment plant is commissioned.
However, a very specific type of package sewage treatment system is required, some of the necessites are:
A completely self-contained ‘all in one’ ‘plug&play’ system that does not require extra tanks to work and that can be easily installed/commissioned with minimal civil works.
A very compact system, as the area available for temporary plants is always at a premium, so the more compact a system is, the better.
A system that can be installed without a concrete surround so that it can be easily decommissioned and removed with the ability to be redeployed to another site.
The flexibility that the system can be installed in phases as the population for a development increases.
A system that is very quiet and generates minimal odour.
A system that requires minimal power and maintenance.
A system that can be installed above, below or partially below ground.
A system that can fit fully assembled in a standard truck or that can be shipped by container for export overseas.
A system that was installed successfully for similar temporary projects.
A proven system manufactured to an approved quality system such as ISO 9001, which has a long track record in Ireland and worldwide.
A system that is suitable for hire purchase, so that the cost can be spread over a number of years.
The above tough set of requirements have been achieved on a repeated basis by the BMS Blivet ‘all in one’ Package Sewage Treatment System.
Phase 1: 1 No. BMS BL2000 Blivet being lowered into place
Project
In 2022 BMS was contacted by Symbiose, a French company specialising in the provision of temporary sewage treatment, storage and pumping solutions. One of their clients, who are the propietors of a Camping & Tourist Accomodation Site, consisting of fixed challets along with camping and caravan pitches, based in a small coastal town in Brittany, France wanted to expand but had been told by their local municipality that they would not be able to do so, as the local municipal sewage treament plant was already overloaded.
Symbiose had previously worked with BMS on other projects and knew that BMS had been providing temporary sewage treatment solutions around the world for 20+ years. Symbiose had a number of requirements for the project. Firstly, an extremly compact ‘all in one’ system that could be shipped ‘ready to go’ was a priority. Along with this the system needed to be a completely self contained system that could be moved to another site when the present site requirment was finished. The ‘all in one’ system was important as it would allow the option of funding the Blivet via Hire Purchase.
Finally, as with all camping/tourism there was quite a bit of variability of loads so a system that able to fully treated all loads from high and low was required, along with a system that did not need a minmium MLSS/load to function.
BMS proposed a BMS BL2000 Blivet solution, which was installed in 2022 and has been operating well since then. Indeed, the Camping Site owners were so happy that they requested Symbiose to increase capacity by a futher 500 PE or 500 more residents. This Blivet supplied was special and it was a fully refurbished and reconditioned Blivet that had previously been installed as part of a huge 5000 PE sewage treatment plant in Lusk, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
Phase 2: 1 No. BMS BL4000 Blivet installed
Sewage Treatment Plant Design & Design Calculations
1 Population Equivalent (PE) = 60 g of BOD/person/day, 90 g of SS/person/day, 120 g of COD/person/day & 150 l of flow/person/day.
Outlet Effluent Standard: BOD 25 mg/l, SS 35 mg/l & COD 150 mg/l.
Phase 1
Phase 2
Blivet Design:
Phase 1: 1 No. BMS BL2000 Blivet.
Phase 2: 1 No. BMS BL4000 Blivet.
Phase 2: BMS BL4000 Blivet being delivered to site
Design/Layout/Value Engineering
The BMS Blivet is most compact ‘all in one system’ available combining primary settlement, final settlement, Aerobic Treatment & 3+ months sludge storage all housed in one steel reinforced GRP/Fibreglass tank with lockable lids. This met the clients main requirements:
It was delivered ready to go to France and was up and running within a day of delivery.
It neatly fits in a corner of the site and runs extremely quietly with lockable lids to minimise any odour issues.
The Blivet was reviewed by a Hire Purchase Company, Natrocredimurs and was deemed suitable for Hire Purchase due to it being completely self contained, mobile and suitable for relocation.
A low maintenance solution was required so that it could easily be maintained on site by the Camping Site owners with support from Symbiose.
BMS Blivet’s are independent units that can operate in series with each other with the flow split between multiple units or extra units running in parallel to remove Ammonia etc. This enabled a 250 PE capacity Blivet to be installed on one part of the site with a second 500 PE capacity BL4000 Blivet being installed on another part of the site.
A quick installation was achieved on the site; the Blivet’s were lifted fully ‘ready to go’ from a trailer by crane, lowered into place on prepared and compacted ground. The inlet/outlet pipes were connected and the power plugged in. The Blivet’s were then up and running without the need for seeding.
The BMS Blivet can be installed fully free standing, partially buried or buried to lid level. Indeed, it can even be installed fully underground. In this case, the client chose to install above ground for the quickest possible installation and to allow for easy removal at the end of project.
BMS Blivet’s provide excellent long term value due to their quality of construction and very low maintenance/power requirement. This was clearly demonstrated by the BL4000 Blivet installed in Phase 2, which was 15+ year old BMS Blivet, which BMS renovated and refurbished and was delivered to a new site in full working order. The expected lifetime of a BMS Blivet with minimal maintenance is 30+ years. BMS are one of a very selected group of manufacturers who have systems still running after 30 years and who can refurbish and previously used unit so that it can have an extended new lease of life.
Civil works for a BMS Blivet are extremely easy and consist only of 1 No. 20N reinforced concrete slab 3.0 m (w) x 0.15 m (d) x length of the unit (max 11 m (l) for the BL4000), the placing of the Blivet on the slab and then connecting the power to the integral panel and connecting the inlet/outlet pipes.
BMS Construction/Installation Details
BMS manufactured, supplied and commissioned 1 No. BL2000 Blivet Package Sewage Treatment Plant in in 2022 and 1 No. refurbished BL4000 Blivet in 2024, to our French partner, Symbiose Technologies. The installation and commissioning was completed by Symbiose for both Blivet’s with remote support from BMS. The BMS Blivet is designed so it can be supplied, installed and maintained by any competent contractor. The civil works are extremely easy for a BMS Blivet, install a slab 3.0 m wide x 0.15 m deep x the length of the Blivet, excavate if being placing below/partially below ground, connect the inlet/outlet pipe and finally connect power to the integral control panel, simple as that. The Blivet can then accept sewage for treatment. In phased projects many contractors will often do all the civil works up front, which makes phased installation very easy later.
In this project to allow for easy installation and removal of the Blivet’s they were installed fully above ground. Unlike most other systems the Blivet does not require any extra supports to free stand. Indeed, some unique features of the Blivet particularly lent itself to this temporary project. As already alluded to it is a complete ‘plug&play’ steel reinforced ‘all in one’ solution, that contains everything required for sewage treatment; primary settlement, final settlement, aerobic treatment via the BMS Aerotor Next Generation RBC, and 3+ months sludge storage. The BL4000 Blivet, which can treat up to 500 residents, is extremely compact, only max 10.9 m in length by 2.3 m wide by 2.25 height to deck level, this means space/excavation is minimised as much as possible. Furthermore, the Blivet does not require a concrete surround when free standing or buried. It can be backfilled with selected excavated material when buried. This not only means placing of the Blivet is very easy but also is extremely important for a temporary plant, as a concrete surround would make for a very difficult and costly excavation to remove a sewage treatment plant. However, the Blivet can be easily removed due to not requiring a concrete surround.
BMS Blivet Technology
The BMS Blivet is the most compact ‘all in one’ package sewage treatment plant available worldwide. It has been installed in 50+ countries all around the world in every possible climate extreme over 30+ years. The BMS Blivet was developed, designed and patented by BMS, Ireland. The Blivet offers simplicity in an age of complication, while able to achieve virtually any standard of effluent including low BOD, SS, NH4, TN & P. It is also extremely robust and built to last in an ISO 9001 certified factory in Ireland. You can see how the Blivet works at the following link; https://youtu.be/i0paRj7pew4
Maintenance is simple; ½-1 man hour per week, see how to do it on our detailed maintenance video.
Overall, the Blivet is chosen by discerning customers who want a product that is easy to operate, built to last and who understand the upfront cost is only a small element in the overall cost of running a sewage treatment plant for 20+ years.
BMS Operation/Maintenance Details:
The Blivet is completely maintained by the Camping Staff Personnel with support from Symbiose Technologies. The Blivet is designed to be able to be installed or maintained by any competent caretaker/fitter. However, BMS are always available to provide advice and technical back up. Our helpful maintenance video, shows all maintenance tasks for the Blivet and is available in English and French. The standard of effluent being produced to date has been very good.
Other Temporary Sewage Treatment Projects
BMS have manufactured and supplied BMS Blivet’s to 50+ countries worldwide. BMS have vast experience of providing temporary sewage treatment solutions, some reference projects are:
All US Army bases in Iraq exclusively used the BMS Blivet for temporary sewage treatment.
The Bechtel ‘In Sallah’ Gas Pipeline project exclusively used the BMS Blivet to treat the sewage generated at all work camps in Algeria.
Medicines San Frontiers (MSF) Emergency Camps in Africa.
The BMS Blivet treated up to 5000 PE in Lusk, Co. Dublin before the Portrane Municipal Plant was commissioned.
Housing Projects throughout Ireland including: Arklow, Kingscourt, Edenderry, Midelton, Cork and many more.
The BMS Blivet UV is being used at 10+ sites in Ireland, UK and Europe to treat the sewage generated by workers on site to a full disinfected standard suitable for reuse on site. It offers a compelling payback compared to tankering away untreated sewage. Sites include Centre Parcs Ireland, Dublin Airport, Avondale House, N5 Upgrade, Oweninny Wind Farm and many more.
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