Marine Sewage Treatment Plant OMNIPURE 12

Although I have had very little "hands on" experience with marine sewage plants, because they only started coming into service in the last couple of years of my naval service and it has not been something that I have bothered to keep track of, even though I have been teaching marine engineering.............no fishing vessels in Southern Australia, at this point in time have sewage plant.........this will change shortly for vessels over 400 gross tonnes.

However my mail suggests that they are on a par with desal units, in other words you will always have trouble and maintenance problems with them.

Sorry I cannot be of any real assistance to you.

Alex, clean your book cell once a week and back flush once a day. Do not run galley waste into Omnipure system.

Gary Greaves

omnipure 12 was installed 4 months ago on our platform ,never been lucky since then .Now it's started alarming current imbalance .Found broken bipolar plates inside bookcell .Does your unit have increased current and voltage caused by this eroded plates?

Hi toni,

That sounds good.................it appears my mail could be right. I remember the first and only sewage system I was unfortunate to deal with was an utter catastrophe, it never operated correctly.....................some years later, after I left that ship, it was instrumental in the death of three sailors.

It appears as though things haven't changed much.........sorry for the negativity.

Hi Mobi,

Could you please explain in details what happened with the sewage system that killed three sailors?

Good luck

Prema

Hi Toni

It seems to me that you have the same problem. The voltage in our unit is fine but the current is slightly increased. I think that the problem can be because of deposits on bipolar plates. We flash bookcell every day and clean bookcells every two weeks on a regular basis. But in any way we replace some plates every time when we open the bookcell and we can not solved the problem for 3 years.

Now we are going to install additional filters after laundry and a grease trap after kitchen to protect the bookcell.

Dear Sir,

My name is Robert Crutchfield. I am the field service manager for Severn Trent DeNora the OEM of the Omnipure unit. If you are still having problems with your Omnipure contact me at 1-281-274-8754 or by e-mail at rcrutchfield@severntrentdenora.com

I can only sympathize with you Alex, I have been putting up with trouble from the Omnipure unit since June 2005. I and the guys I work with have experienced the same problems. Galley bits, grease, various cleaning substances, fresh water usage, and salinity of the sea water have all been suspected as a cause. As of yet, our platform has to put 2 to 3 hours of cleaning on this unit per week. The electodes burn out and there is no rhyme or reason apparent. Sometimes the unit will go for weeks without burning electrode, then for some unknown reason, the electrodes will go from perfectly fine to eaten up in just 3 days.

If you already have an Omnipure unit, I recommend that you clean it often. If you are planning an installation which entrains galley water or bits to go through it, either re-route the galley water/bits or plan on using a different type of equipment. If the installation is going to be used in brackish water, choose a different type of unit. If you are going to run it to it's upper design limit, get a different unit. If you are going to use it on sea-going vessel, the manufacturer and distributor say it is a great piece of equipment. I can't argue either way in that case, but I will continue to recommend other types of sewage treatment units for offshore oil/gas facilities.

Misha

All - I sympathize with all here ref the Omnipure system. I too have been putting up w/ Omnipure units. Unfortunately, we are not able to isolate gray water from black water. The only grey water that goes overboard is from the lanudry room. The rest is going in the raw sewage tank (V1). We do have the same problems that you describes (SCR firing and current imbalance) buring up bookcells. We manually clean it once a week. The water salinity is low therefore we have addition brine going in the system from RO unit. The whole package is lack of essential instruments therefore it's difficult to trouble shoot. It's mostly manually operated. Have you consider intruducing seawater in the bottom of V1 tank via clean out port to help agitate the settling solids? Replacing restricted for orifices w/ hand valve for better control?...... I suggest we have a conference trying to brainstorm to resolve the common problem here. I can organize the conference if you are interested to join. Technical help from Severn out Sugarland office is below satisfactory. They are happy to sell you more bookcells or send a tech service guy out to repeat all the troubleshooting that you've already tried :-) .

For selection of the STP for our new platform, Severn will not be the one, for sure. It's not suitable for oil/gas platform and it doesn't have to be electrochemical process either so you won't get stuck with Omnipure. There are many other bacterial treatment out there that is suitable for oil/gas installation. For now, we're stuck with existing Omnipure...

All,

If you are having problems with your Omnipure Sewage Treatment Plant please give me a call. I will be more than happy to help you guys with the issues that you are having. I will also be able to give you some tips to ensure that the system operates efficiently. My name is Robert Crutchfield. I am the technical services manager at Severn Trent DeNora (OEM). My direct phone number is 1-281-274-8451. If I do not answer leave a message. I promise I will call you back. E-mail address rcrutchfield@severntrentdenora.com.

Regards

How much does a bookcell cost?

Good answer, I also had burnt plates due to some brackish water

but one thing to keep in mind u need to back flush 2 times per day and check book cell once a week. I have noticed plates burn when the are not sealed of or install properly

Can any one help me with an electrical drawing fo a 12 mc i have to trouble shoot one and i have no drawing to read thanks

I am Also looking for the Electrical control Drawings for the 12MC Omini-Pure system,

Robert Crutchfield, can you help us out with these Electrical drawing?

I Found the drawings, any one in need of drawings, or is there some one who has problems with Book cell burning up, call Me @251-599-6364, I have your solution that may save you up to $10,000.00 and prolong the life of your Book Cell!!!, even if you are connected to both Gray water and Black water!!!!

Hi, We are having current imbalance issues and XMR 1 and XMR 2 faults constantly coming up on our STP as well. I am curious what did you do to fix this? I am in Australia, would you be able to email me directly? We back flush this thing once a day and clean it once a week. It trips out 5 times a shift... Its a nightmare! Cheers, Andy maxmcnamara@yahoo.com.au

Hello Andrew, I think I saw your platform being constructed at DSME, next to the platform I worked on. First, there should be a BIG LABEL placed in each sales pamphlet and on the Internet that says "THIS CONTRAPTION IS A MONEY PIT", A MENACE, and A MAINTENANCE NIGHTMARE!"; but, you may have already realized this. Now, down to your problem. Have you replaced the plates? Have you checked to make sure none of the plates burned the case of the book cell? If so, has the case been buffed to remove any metallic residue? Also, are you injecting enough seawater? Check the effluent salinity from the unit. If the salinity is low, this has a bearing on current issues. Check the seawater filter. If the filter is open, you may try to increase the size of the seawater inlet orifice. If you try to get the Trent-Severne service agent out to your location, it will probably be a waste of time and money, unless he brings a Red Fox unit with him to replace the Omnipure unit. I worked on a platform for seven years in Russia. You can read my comments above. The unit we had was the single-most labor-intensive and part eating piece of equipment on the platform. We replaced plates on the average of 3 times a month. The plates for that unit cost $350 USD each, at that time. I wish you luck. Regards, Dedyamisha

Yes that was the one! Thankyou for your response, we are having meetings on how to best attack this as we are having problems with flow and we are guessing not getting enough sea water as you suggest. I will get back to you. Cheers :)

Good luck! I'll be around. Cheers

Hi! I'am also having issues with the OMNIPURE 15, it has been less than 4 months that it has been running, we clean the book cells once a week, recently it has been shutting down sometimes in every 5mins for a while before to stabilize. and the alarms are:

- PCB Firing Board Alarm

-Macerator not in Auto (even though they are)

High vent pressure

Hello Perfis, I assume by "cleaning the book cells", you mean you physically open the book cell and spray wash the plates. If so, did you find the plates in good condition? Were there any burned plates? If you replaced them, did you put silicon sealant behind the plates? If any were burned, did you buff down the book cell assemble to remove any metal deposits embedded into the PVC when the plates burned. Have you cleaned the saltwater inlet filter? If it filter is plugged, there will not be enough saltwater, which will affect the conductivity of the water and cause current imbalance. The current imbalance can cause PCB Firing Board alarms. Burned plates can also cause this alarm. We found that as the load on the unit increases, and during certain times of the year, there will be an increase of alarms, such as you are getting. Water salinity, silt and sand content, and algae and krill growth cause the problems. I hope this helps. Regards, Dedyamisha