Kingspan Environmental has been contracted to supply pumping stations to Thanet Earth in Kent - the UK's largest, most technically complex greenhouse development.

Covering 67 hectares, the massive £80 million greenhouse development will comprise seven huge glasshouses, an on-site pack-house and a visitors' centre. It will ensure that fresh UK-grown, rather than imported, goods are supplied to the consumer, dramatically reducing the number of 'food-miles' that fresh produce currently travels 'from fork to fork'.

Norfolk-based Bingham Hall Associates (BHA) was commissioned by Thanet Earth owners FRESCA Ltd to design and manage the water-related aspects of the development, including irrigation, rainwater harvesting and wastewater. Because of Thanet Earth's size and scale, a pumping system had to be specified to manage the expectant volumes of process wastewater and foul water.

BHA designed the system using four Kingspan Environmental vertical pump stations, and a Pumpstor24-13 (featuring an 80,000 litre storage tank) which will be linked to two interconnecting 65,000 storage tanks.  The 24-hour storage capacity built into the Pumpstor24, and allied to the storage tanks, is designed to ensure that, in the event of a power failure that stops the pumps from working, the site is protected from foul water and process wastewater overflow.

Robustly built in a GRP shell with reinforced ribbing, the Pumpstor24 responds to the sudden loss of power and the associated inflow of waste water that will start to accumulate. In addition a large storage volume is required to balance the flows into the pumping station with the restricted discharge to the public sewer.

The Pumpstor24 pump station contains two compartments, a pump well and storage chamber, which are separated by a baffle wall:  as the liquid level rises within the pump well, it passes through a screen in the baffle wall, which removes any solids. The solid-free liquid then passes through the screen and into the storage area of the pump station. Keeping the solids in one area of the pump station allows easy removal, if required, and also stops sedimentation with the associated odour and septic sewage problems.

Once power is restored the pumps will work normally again and the liquid will flow back from storage and pumped away. Sedimentation will not occur due to the screening system and the solids will be pumped away as normal.

At Thanet Earth, the pumping stations will discharge the wastewater through 2.5 kilometres of pumping mains to the public sewer.

Andrew Bingham, Principal at BHA said: "We chose Kingspan Environmental pumps and storage chambers as they provided a cost effective and simple means of achieving the large storage volumes required for the wastewater system, and the benefit of separation of the solids and clean water storage.

"The GRP tanks are delivered to site ready for installation and only need installing in the excavation, much easier and quicker than cast insitu concrete chambers. And they come ready for installing the pumps and connecting up the power supply".

"Furthermore, having worked with them on other projects, we know Kingspan Environmental's technical engineering expertise is excellent, so they are able to provide valuable advice to support the project."

Andy Newman, pump station product manager at Kingspan Environmental, said:

"We're delighted to be working with BHA on Thanet Earth, which is such a ground-breaking initiative.

"Emergency storage requirements have become a mainstay for most applications in line with current legislation.  What's more, Local Authorities and Municipal Agencies are looking to the future and packaged systems rather than bespoke design-and-build units are becoming a requirement, which is why Pumpstor24 is becoming such a popular choice."