UV upgrades of Columbus, Ohio

  • Technology

Issue: 

The City of Columbus, capital of Ohio in the US, is to have two of its water treatment plants upgraded with ultraviolet disinfection following the award of contracts worth $4.8 million to Xylem.

The two plants being upgraded are the 125 million gallon per day Hap Cremean Water Plant and the 80 million gallon per day Dublin Road Water Plant. According to Xylem, the UV disinfection will provide an additional treatment barrier to address the pathogen Cryptosporidium, and both of the upgrades presented ‘unique and complex challenges’, according to the statement released by the company.

Construction work on both upgrades is due to begin next year and both are due to be operational in 2020.

According to Xylem, the Hap Cremean plant upgrade required a complex retrofit into the existing filter pipe gallery. It is supplying 24 of the company’s Spektron 2000e UV reactors. The company says that a compact UV reactor was needed to allow for maintenance and to limit the modifications needed for the current pipe configuration. Also, the UV system had to achieve the disinfection required and maintain a headloss of less than 20 inches (50cm) in order to avoid disrupting the hydraulic profile of the plant.

Headloss also had to be minimised in the Dublin Road plant upgrade in order to avoid additional pumping costs. For this project, Xylem is providing five of its Wedeco K143 UV reactors.

Keywords: 

  • USA, Xylem, water treatment, disinfection