Solving Ireland’s wastewater issues

With environmental concerns becoming ever-more urgent by the day, the issue of how best to deal with wastewater and sewage is always a key concern. Leading the way in innovative solutions is Irish company Butler Manufacturing Services Ltd, or BMS for short. Now celebrating 38 years in business, BMS is widely regarded one of the world’s leading designers and manufacturers of smart package products to treat sewage, wastewater and surface water.

The company is fully family-owned, with Tommy Butler being the third generation to lead the business. “Our team has decades of experience with deep market knowledge,” Butler says. “We believe that the human touch is still very important and we welcome the chance to talk to clients new and old regarding their sewage treatment and surface water management projects. We always aim to produce a great value custom solution that is built to last.”

BMS was set up by Managing Director Seamus Butler just outside Longford Town in 1986, after identifying a growing requirement for a smart self-contained or package sewage treatment solutions both in Ireland and worldwide. The first product brought to market was the BMS Aerotor next generation Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC) sewage treatment system. This was quickly followed by the ‘all on one’ package sewage treatment system, the Blivet, integrating the Aerotor, with smart primary/final settlement by lamellae plates and 3+ months sludge storage.

The Blivet has been exported all over the world to 50+ countries and is still going from strength to strength. “The Blivet’s success can be attributed to a number of factors such as it being the most compact ‘all in one system’ available, meaning that the full range can ship in a standard container,” said Butler. “It’s very low power, installation and maintenance cost, which is becoming increasingly important in a more eco conscious world and its build quality. In fact, many of the first Blivets manufactured over 30 years ago are still in operation today.”

Sewage treatment is not BMS’ only speciality. The company quickly also identified a demand for surface water treatment solutions, and began by manufacturing Petrol/Oil Interceptors. Since then, the company has continued to expand its surface water treatment solutions, and now supplies a complete ‘one stop shop’ from design to installation. This includes BMS Drainmax Tunnels and the BMS Stormbreaker crate-type surface water attenuation and infiltration systems.

The role of these systems is to store surface water run-off at a site and then release it at a sustainable rate, preventing flooding on site and downstream. Such systems now have to be installed at all sites where new builds or extensions are taking place.

Complementing this is the BMS Stormbrake Outlet Flow Control, which controls the rate of discharge from these systems, and the market-leading BMS Stormbreaker Defender Vortex Separator, which was designed in conjunction with the University of Galway. Through a specialist use of vortex dynamics it separates silt, oil and debris out of surface water flows preventing pollution. It can be used upstream and downstream of surface flows and can also be used to prevent pollution before discharge to water courses.

“The Defender has been enjoying a lot of success as an Irish designed and manufactured product, with innovative features such as all sizes fitting in a standard container for transport and the BMS trademark ‘ready to go’ manufacture process, which means that on-site installation is the simplest on the market,” said Butler.

The Defender has been enjoying a lot of success as an Irish designed and manufactured product

Innovation is always at the core of BMS solutions. Recent advances include an option to add UV disinfection at the outlet of the Blivet, meaning that the treated disinfected effluent can be reused on site for irrigation, toilet flushing, road cleaning and wheel washing.

“Not only is this suitable for areas with water shortages, but it is also especially suited to construction sites,” said Butler. “Multiple systems havie been deployed during construction on sites as diverse as Centre Parcs, Dublin Airport and the Oweninny Wind Farm, where all the sewage produced by workers at these sites was treated and reused, generating a compelling payback compared to the traditional approach of tankering away untreated sewage.”

In a similar vein, BMS have developed and launched a new package tertiary treatment system, the BMS Final Effluent Polishing Filter (FEPF), to polish treated wastewater for discharge to sensitive environments or again for reuse. It is the most compact system of its type available. Finally, a large recent area of growth for BMS has been vehicle washwater recycling, in the form of the BMS Recyclone, a unique ‘all in one’ solution’that converts the used washwater to clean water suitable for reuse and also eliminates discharge of any dirty water.

For more information on BMS’ solutions, please see www.butlerms.com