Speaking with pumpers, installers and inspectors about Premier Tech Aqua’s self-cleaning DiUV ultraviolet disinfection system, the company’s regional supervisor Mike Kaub says this year’s Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo International could prove quite profitable. In addition to sales leads, one contact he met at the show has the potential to expand distribution into other countries.

“Who knows, that could become a multimillion-dollar deal,” he says. “And if I wasn’t at the Pumper & Cleaner Expo, I wouldn’t have gotten it.”

Kaub says a key feature of the new disinfection unit is its self-cleaning function, which automatically cleans off the film to ensure proper treatment.

“Homeowners will not touch anything out in the yard that has to do with septic systems,” he says. “Being an installer and service provider, I can speak from experience. We take that out of the homeowner’s hands.”

The ground-level disinfection system is easy to access and maintain.

“With some of the older units, installers were putting them in an 8-inch sleeve that could be several feet into the ground. How are you going to service that? What happens is they don’t. This is at the surface. You remove four bolts [and take off the top]. We have camlock fittings, so no tools are required to disconnect it. Pull it up, take off the side panels and remove the [UV] bulbs. Replace the bulbs, put it back down in, connect the two pieces of pipe and put the lid back on.”

To attain tertiary treatment level, wastewater meeting NSF Standard 40 Class 1 water quality is pumped to the surface-level unit for disinfection. Water circulates through the quartz sleeve under a controlled and constant flow rate, providing optimum pathogen contact.

“It keeps everything at the surface so you don’t have to worry about water infiltrating into the system,” Kaub says of the disinfection system that rests inside a 43 1/4-inch tall, 26 1/4-inch in diameter prefabricated enclosure. A handle enables the UV unit to be lifted up and out for servicing.

The system can handle flow rates of 6.6 gpm or 9,000 gpd. “Most residential homes are 400 to 500 gpd, so it’s a commercial unit as well,” Kaub says.

Designed for new installs, retrofits or the replacement of failing systems where stream, ditch or surface discharges are permitted, the UV unit treats fecal coliform effluent to less than 200 cfu per 100 mL, BOD and TSS influent to less than 30 mg/L and hardness of influent water to less than 500 mg/L.

“It’s a clean-stream DiUV,” Kaub says. “We can retrofit it into where people are using chlorinators. There again we’re relying on the homeowner to buy the material. They go to the store and buy pool chlorine, which is not the right stuff because it gets gummed up.” Installed inside a small lift chamber, the UV unit can ensure we’re putting clean water into our streams like we’re supposed to, he says.

Looking forward to the 2014 Pumper & Cleaner Expo, Kaub promises to have a new treatment system on display. Currently in the testing phase, results are expected in time for the show. 800/632-6356; www.premiertechaqua.com.