History of Vacuum Sewerage Systems

Vacuum sewerage systems have been around a lot longer than one would think, in 1863 the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands had a system in operation designed by the Dutch engineer Charles T Liernur, who developed the first vacuum sewerage system. Charles Liernur was born in 1828 in Haarlem, Holland and fought as a captain in the Confederate Army. After being taken prisoner he was sent back to Europe by General Halleck. Liernur settled in Europe and promoted his vacuum sewerage system throughout the world. Systems were constructed in Amsterdam (Holland), Stanstead (U.K.) and Trouville (France). The Amsterdam system had a number of vacuum stations, and more than 10,000 people connected to it. The system was operated manually, and had no interface valves as systems of today have. The system had to collect wastewater and had to be profitable. The sewage collected was used as a fertilizer, and ammonia was extracted. The system only collected black water via toilets that had a tight fitting lid and a vent pipe that ran from the upper bowl to above the house level. No flushing water was provided at the bowl. Iron pipes were connected to the privies and ran under the house out to the street where several pipes were connected to an underground sealed reservoir. Each pipe or sewer was isolated at the reservoir with a valve. Each reservoir was located near a convenient gas lamp post, concealed inside which was the suction connection to the reservoir. This pipe was capped when not in use. Each night a horse drawn, steam vacuum pumper wagon was connected to the reservoir through the concealed suction pipe. Suction was applied to the reservoir, the sewer valve opened and all the house privies connected to the sewer emptied. The sewage collected by the pumper wagon was decanted into barrels which were then taken into the countryside where farmers used the contents as fertilizer. When the people in Amsterdam started to use water closets, the sewage was getting diluted too much, and the system was no longer profitable. The city of Amsterdam then decided to change slowly to gravity systems in such a scale that they could move troops inside the city, unseen for enemies outside. The Amsterdam system was partly still in use in 1908. Other systems from Liernur were in operation in cities like Hanau, Prague, Milan, Cologne, Berlin and London. The Liernur system was proposed as the complete system for the new city of Sydney in the 1860s, but a night soil man was chosen instead.

In 1866, J.P.W. Schmick registered an arrangement similar to Liernur except the town was to be divided into districts, each of which was to have a large underground vacuum tank with vacuum constantly maintained on the sewer. This is similar to the systems in operation today. In 1887, a French patent was issued to Adrian LeMarquand. Basically the patent describes a one-pipe system in which total sewage flow from a home is collected in a single pipe and conveyed to a vacuum station. This patent included the over the top rule which is still followed by most vacuum system manufacturers today.

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The modern vacuum system was developed in the 1950s, by Joel Liljendahl a Swedish national living and working in Switzerland. The main innovation was with the use of a membrane valve, and an automatic controller. He also developed the vacuum toilet. His ideas where patented and around 1960, the Swedish company Electrolux bought the patent rights, and developed the system more. Electrolux installed a number of systems using a 2 inch membrane valve in places like Australia, the West Indies, and throughout Europe. Evac had also developed a vacuum toilet and ultimately bought out the Electrolux business and developed a 2 inch piston valve.
Joel Liljendahl 1960s

AIRVAC 3 inch valve 1968

Electrolux 2 inch valve 1965

Iseki Redivac

Flovac

EVAC

Sekisui

Quavac

Roediger

Evac (now owned by Zodiac of France) ultimately focused its business on the marine market and the indoor market. Some of their engineers left and started Jets also in the marine market, and another engineer left and started Quavac who focussed on land based systems. Quavac have sometimes used a 3 inch vacuum valve developed in Japan. In the late sixties AIRVAC in the US developed a 3 inch piston valve and completed its first project in 1972. Brian Foreman the head of Engineering left in the 1980s to establish Iseki UK (formerly Cowells and also now known as Redivac).

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Late 1988 Roediger from Germany took the production over from Evac producing the same membrane valve as invented by Joel Liljendahl in the 1950s, some rubbers from that time, still fit the modern Roediger or Roevac valve. In 2005 Roediger (owned by Bilfinger Berger) bought Airvac. From this purchase a number of International Licensees and engineers from Airvac joined to form Flovac, the first truly global vacuum sewerage company. The founding partners and associates have been involved in the industry for more than twenty years in many cases, and the Chairman, Mr. Willem Gooren, has been involved since 1981 years and has been involved, personally, in more than 200 systems. Flovac Systems is a global firm with manufacturing, design and support centres in Holland, Germany, and Australia, and operating bases in another 16 countries. The central production area in Holland operates in conjunction with a highly regarded sheltered workshop and operates at an ISO standard. The main Flovac valve assembly as well as production of a number of other Flovac products takes place at this facility under vigorous testing regimes. Many of the firms research and development activities also take place there.

International Standards on vacuum sewerage systems

European Standard German Standard US Code (Second Edition -2008)

EN 1091 DWA-A 116-1 (also known as ATV-DVWK-A 116, Part 1) WEF (Water Environment Federation) Alternative Sewer Systems

Australian Code WSA 07 Australian Standard for the Vacuum Interface Valve AS 4310 - 2004 Malaysian Sewerage Industry Guidelines Volume 3 (MSIG 3) Qatar Construction Specification Section 8 Part 12

Standards for use of vacuum sewerage systems inside buildings EN 12109 Also see British Standard Design Guide BRE in conjunction with European Standard

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Key People

Willem Gooren Chairman Mr Gooren has been involved with vacuum technology since 1981 and established Gooren BV in Holland in 1988. Mr Gooren has designed over 200 systems and has established 15 Flovac offices throughout Europe and Latin America. Mr Gooren is widely considered one of the experts in vacuum technology and was a member of the European committee that developed the first vacuum sewerage standard in the world EN 1091, the European standard that is now used throughout the Middle East and Asia as well as in Europe.

John Radinoff CEO Mr. Radinoff had been involved in International Banking for over twenty years as Vice President of Goldman Sachs in Asia and Executive Director of Swiss Banking Corporation (UBS) in Australia. Mr. Radinoff joined his family company established by his parents Geoff and Pat Radinoff in 1984, over ten years ago in Australia. Australia had been at the forefront of vacuum wastewater collection and the Radinoff family at its centre. Mr Radinoff sits on the board of the Australian operations and of Flovac Middle East based in Dubai. Burkhard Vogt General Manager

Mr. Vogt, a chemical engineer, studied at the University of Dortmund in Germany. He has been involved with the design, installation and operation of some of the largest vacuum schemes in Europe and has been involved in the water industry for over twenty years. Mr. Vogt has been the driving force in the acceptance of the technology in many countries particularly in Eastern and Southern Europe. Mr. Vogt is on the board of Flovac Deutschland, Flovac Polska and Flovac Adria. Peter Radinoff Director

Peter Radinoff runs the Operational base for the Australian/Asian arm of the business and has been involved with Flovac since 1989. He is considered one of the most experienced operators in the world and regularly runs operator training courses.

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