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Heathrow Airport Cuts Pumping Station Energy Use in Half with Xylem’s Flygt Concertor

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Early adopter of intelligent pumping systems expands use and reduces annual cleaning and service costs by 87.5 per cent.

London’s Heathrow Airport is one of Europe’s busiest airports, supporting an average of 34,000 flights every month and millions of passengers each year. This massive volume of traffic requires the airport to have reliable and resilient critical infrastructure, including its wastewater management system.

A decade ago, the airport faced the challenge of chronic clogging in its wastewater network. To solve the problem, Heathrow Airport Water Services Department teamed with long-time partner Xylem, leveraging our Flygt Concertor intelligent pumps to dramatically improve performance, cut costs and reduce energy use. In recent years, Heathrow Airport has gone on to install the Flygt Concertor system across its asset base – delivering game-changing results for the airport and the stakeholders it serves.

The initial challenge: difficult to pump waste and clogging
At Heathrow Airport, the central Area Sanitation Unit adjacent to Terminal 1 is a receiving station for aircraft toilet waste, which contains a high level of non-biological solids, including various plastic materials, wipes, nappies and clothing. This stringy material can be difficult to pump because it can catch on the impeller and partially block the pump. These blockages can lead to increased energy consumption and, in the worst case, a full shut-down of the pump.

In 2015, the pumping station was regularly experiencing these clogging issues. The blockages required frequent reactive maintenance visits to prevent delays and disruptions for travellers, causing a stressed working environment for the operators. In addition, the pumping station wet well required cleaning every six months.

“We would usually have to deal with two or three clogging issues during a three-month period,” said Ian Jolly, Systems Specialist for Water, Heathrow Airport Water Services Department.

“We also used to see a shelf of fat and material deposits build up on the walls of the sump, as well as floating debris. This presented a very tough challenge to our existing wastewater pumps, which we frequently had to de-clog.”

Leading-edge intelligent wastewater pumping system
Based on their decades-long partnership, Heathrow Airport decided to trial Xylem’s Flygt Concertor, the world’s first fully intelligent wastewater pumping system. A single Concertor pump, complete with the intelligent control system, was installed to run the entire pumping station.

The solution uses sensor monitoring, self-optimising technology and adaptive hydraulics to detect clogs and adjust the pump’s speed and performance to remove liquid and solids, using the lowest amount of power possible for the pump flow produced. The pump also has self-cleaning functionality to help virtually eliminate blockages.

Solution tackles clogging, delivers substantial energy and cost savings
Heathrow Airport’s forward-thinking decision nearly a decade ago to harness the power of digital intelligence has delivered outstanding results. Since that time, the original trial Flygt Concertor pump has required just one reactive site visit in the eight years since installation. During the same period, the wet well required no cleaning – delivering cost-savings of approximately 87.5 per cent annually.

Additionally, the Flygt Concertor solution enabled the pumping station to cut energy consumption by 53 per cent. The system has delivered proven reliability at the lowest total cost of ownership, while reducing energy consumption, helping Heathrow achieve its operating expenditure (OPEX) and sustainability goals. The model has since been built into Heathrow’s new standard for airport wastewater pumping station design.

Heathrow was an early adopter of Flygt Concertor. The original pump, installed in November 2015, continues to produce cost savings and maintenance benefits, as it did from the beginning. Concertor has helped us successfully tackle our clogging challenges – and given us peace of mind.

Dan Young, Heathrow Senior Engineer, Water Systems Technical Services

Among the system’s other benefits: 

  • The integrated control system makes it faster and easier for customers to set up and operate.
  • The customer can choose the complete intelligent solution Concertor XPC powered by Nexicon for maximum energy savings or connect Concertor directly to the existing direct online control cabinet.
  • The Heathrow solution recently includes Xylem’s remote-monitoring platform Avensor, enabling Heathrow’s engineers to gauge conditions from any location and deploy the Concertor pump quickly and easily when needs arise.

Airport expands use of Concertor to realise additional gains
Based on the standout success of the original pilot scheme, Heathrow Airport has taken the step to implement the Flygt Concertor system across its asset base. This investment includes complete Nexicon systems and a stock of Flygt Concertor pumps to replace existing submersible wastewater pumps. Heathrow is also exploring other ways to collaborate with Xylem – its trusted partner for more than 30 years and counting – to put proven innovation to work for the airport and all those it serves.

“We have rolled out the Flygt Concertor in a further eight stations, and it has been adopted into the new standard of foul pump station design for Heathrow,” said Young. “We look forward to what the future brings, as larger Flygt Concertor products are released into the range, which will give us further energy and maintenance benefits, as well as reliability.”