Celje is the third largest city in Slovenia and sits at the junction of the Savinja, Hudinja, Ložnica, and Voglajna rivers in the lower Savinja Valley. Serving a population of 85,000 people, the city’s waste water treatment plant (WWTP) used two progressive cavity (PC) pumps to feed a centrifuge with settled sludge.

The abrasive nature of the sludge meant that the PC pumps suffered stator and rotor wear, leading to a drop in flow rates, as well as the need for regular maintenance downtime. Maintenance often took several hours to complete and required expensive spare parts.
To reduce costs in the Celje WWTP sludge handling duty, Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group recommended two Bredel 65 peristaltic hose pumps, fitted with abrasive-resistant NR Endurance hoses, as replacements for the troublesome PC pumps.

Bredel hose pumps have no seals, diaphragms, glands, immersed rotors, stators or pistons to leak, clog or wear. And, unlike other pump types, viscous, grit-filled sludge does not affect their performance. The hose is the pump; a single component change is usually the only maintenance required, with time to change a hose measured in minutes rather than hours.

Bredel’s NR Endurance hoses are providing an impressive lifetime of between 10 and 12 months, significantly reducing the need for maintenance downtime, enabling the waste water treatment plant to achieve a return on investment in just 12 months.

Picture: Bredel Hose Pump (Image: Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group)