NUI Galway (National University of Ireland) is hosting the initial Lumbrifilter pilot at the NUI Galway/EPA wastewater research site located at the Tuam (population of about 5000 people) wastewater treatment plant about 30 km north of Galway City. The research site comprises a wastewater treatment facility that is designed, built and operated by NUI Galway and used for research and demonstration purposes. NUI Galway is one of 20 partners in the INNOQUA project consortium.

In this pilot a prototype Lumbrifilter technology is being tested as a secondary treatment system for municipal wastewater. Some untreated wastewater from the municipal wastewater treatment plant is being diverted into the research site and this, after primary treatment, is being applied to the Lumbrifilter system.

 The schematic is not representative of a commercial unit but rather given this is the first prototype we have included tanks etc to allow us test different primary treatment option.

The Lumbrifilter was delivered to the pilot site in late May 2018 and during June and early July the necessary electrical and mechanical work was carried out to install the system. The various layers of gravel and woodchip used within the Lumbrifilter were then added as were the worms which form the basis of the technology. The system is receiving wastewater and the performance of the system is being monitored with results being available over the coming months.

In the months to come, different operational conditions will be applied to the Lumbrifilter to observe its performance under a variety of conditions (e.g. normal and stressed conditions), and the impact of various primary treatment options will be tested to investigate the degree to which the primary treatment processes can be simplified and the overall sludge production in the system reduced.

The following photos show the installation of the system on site by the NUI Galway team (Louise Hannon, James Feighan and Eoghan Clifford).