External energy-free separation of coarse, suspended and floating solids in one compact structure

The Challenge 

Plas­tics, glass, pack­ag­ing and san­i­tary items pol­lute our water cours­es. These items are dis­charged from sources such as Com­bined Sew­er Over­flows (CSOs). Lit­ter accu­mu­lates on the high­way and adja­cent ditch­es and is then washed into the water­cours­es dur­ing rain­fall events. We have to pro­tect our envi­ron­ment to main­tain a good qual­i­ty of life for all — our drink­ing water must remain afford­able and fish remain edi­ble for future gen­er­a­tions, too.

The Way

Sed­i­men­ta­tion tanks, grit traps, sep­a­ra­tors, flow bifur-cation sys­tems, baf­fle plates and screens are com­mon­ly used tech­nolo­gies for sep­a­rat­ing coarse debris, float­a­bles and pol­lu­tion. Accord­ing to the A 112 guide­lines com­piled by the Ger­man Soci­ety for Water Man­age­ment, Waste Water and Waste (ATV-DWA) dynam­ic sep­a­ra­tion can be used for com­bined and rain­wa­ter sys­tem treat­ment. The Stein­hardt HydroTwister^® Vor­tex Sep­a­ra­tor com­bines the advan­tage of all well-known techniques.

The HydroTwister^® Vor­tex Sep­a­ra­tor com­bines 4 treat­ment meth­ods into one com­pact sys­tem, util­is­ing vor­tex ener­gy for non-pow­ered oper­a­tion and self-clean­ing of the screen face.

Four func­tions in one structure:

• debris and grit trap
• screen
• baf­fle plate
• dynam­ic separation

The Solution

The HydroTwister^® Vor­tex Sep­a­ra­tor con­sists of a com­pact cir­cu­lar con­crete shaft with an inte­ri­or treat­ment unit, giv­ing a round out­er and inner treat­ment cham­ber. The inte­ri­or com­po­nents are stain­less steel and com­prise a round baf­fle plate in the upper zone, a round sieve screen with grater-like slots in the cen­tral area and a drain out­let in the bot­tom which directs the treat­ed water to the dis­charge pipe or watercourse.

Rain­wa­ter or com­bined sewage flow pass tan­gen­tial­ly through the out­er treat­ment cham­ber. A vor­tex flow forms and the cen­trifu­gal force dri­ves coarse par­tic­u­lates out­wards to the con­crete wall. These are then trans­port­ed down­wards towards the con­t­a­m­i­na­tion trap area. Sus­pend­ed solids of greater size than the screen aper­tures will be reli­ably retained. The vor­tex flow car­ries the pol­lut­ing arti­cles con­tin­u­ous­ly around. Heav­ier par­ti­cles sink and the lighter par­ti­cles are retained with­in the float­ing solids cham­ber. The cleaned water that flows through the sieve screen enters the inner treat­ment cham­ber and exits the unit via the out­let drain – see cov­er diagram.

The patent­ed HydroTwister^® Vor­tex Sep­a­ra­tor is designed as a hydro-dynam­ic sep­a­ra­tor. In addi­tion, dif­fer­ent screen sur­faces and aper­ture diam­e­ters are avail­able to match flow and treat­ment tar­gets. This unit can be installed in either in-line or off-line con­fig­u­ra­tions. Advanced automa­tion, mon­i­tor­ing and auto­mat­ed debris removal are avail­able options. The Stein­hardt team team would be pleased to assist and advise.

The Advantages

• hydro-dynam­ic solid/liquid separation
• grav­i­ty separation
• ener­gy-free, pow­ered by vor­tex flow
• self-clean­ing effect due to vor­tex flow
• inte­grat­ed baf­fle plate
• inte­grat­ed coarse mate­r­i­al trap area
• inte­grat­ed sieve screen 
• high per­for­mance
• vari­able design adapt­ed to the environment
• high reli­a­bil­i­ty
• sim­ple and quick installation
• plan­ning support