Engineers show 3-D design for new centrifuge dewatering building at Spring Hill water reclamation plant

Corello Engineers presented a 50% design review for a new dewatering facility at the Spring Hill Water Reclamation Facility during the board's Oct. 7 work session, showing a 3-D model of a larger building that would house centrifuges rather than the existing belt filter press.

Jason Ogg of Corello Engineers explained that centrifuges feed solids at the center of a spinning bowl and use centrifugal force to remove water, producing a drier solids "cake" than a belt filter press. Ogg said the design includes polymer dosing and storage, feed and cake piping, an inclined conveyor to load hauled trucks and four offloading bays with weigh scales to reduce trips to the landfill.

"Centrifuges as compared to belt filter presses, screw presses, are a best in class technology to get you the best solids dryness, cake dryness possible, to reduce disposal costs from the haul off and the tipping fees," Ogg said. The proposed building was described as "future-proof" with pedestals and space for an additional centrifuge unit at full build-out; the initial install would include two centrifuges (one duty, one standby) with room and structural allowance for a third later.

Staff said the 3-D model supports quality control and review and that the 75% design review will include a virtual-reality walkthrough for elected officials. The board asked questions about operations and appreciated the operator-friendly layout and redundancy in the design.

Corello and staff said improved solids dryness will lower landfill disposal weight (and associated tipping fees) and that the design supports later upgrades such as thermal drying if the city chooses to pursue higher-class biosolids management in the future.