Romtec Utilities provided an oil water separator for a new power plant in West Lafayette, Indiana where Duke Energy and Purdue University worked together to build a combined heat and power plant near the Purdue campus. The plant will power Purdue University along with customers in Indiana using a HRSG (heat recovery steam generator).

This method takes waste heat from gas turbines and transfers it to steam, which pushes another steam turbine creating more energy. The steam source will help heat the Purdue campus.

We were contacted by F.A. Wilhelm to review the hot sump basin and were ultimately contracted for three lift stations for this project including the oil water separator, hot sump basin, and wash drains basin. The systems collect water from the boiler inside of the power plant.

The vault of the hot sump basin is around the oil water separator which discharges into the hot sump basin with very hot water (around 200 degrees). The Highland tank oil water separator in the under-slab vault receives water from indoor floor drains and stormwater from the transformer yard. The Highland Tank has a capacity of 300 gallons and is comprised of mild carbon steel with a polyurethan interior.

West Lafayette, Indiana is a city located about an hour northwest of the state capital Indianapolis and home of the Purdue University Boilermakers. Purdue is a public land-grant research university in Indiana offering over 200 majors for undergraduates and over 70 masters or doctoral programs.

Duke Energy Purdue is an electrical utility company in West Lafayette.

Duke Energy and Purdue University joined together on a new power plant which is a combined heat and power plant near the Purdue campus. The power plant will serve Indiana customers along with powering Purdue University. The plant utilizes a process called HRSG (Heat Recovery Steam Generator) that recovers waste heat from gas turbines and turns it into steam, which pushes a steam turbine creating more power which makes it more efficient with the same amount of energy.

From a cost perspective, the plant produces both electricity and steam more effectively than typical utility plants. The new power plant produces a new steam source option for heating the Purdue campus.

Romtec Utilities was contacted to fast track a project by F.A. Wilhelm. F.A. Wilhelm is the Midwest’s largest pourer of concrete, but they also construct smaller 20MW power plants.

F.A. Wilhelm originally brought us the hot sump basin lift station for our review, and then subsequently added two other systems. Romtec Utilities ended up doing three total systems including: an oil water separator, a Hot Sump Basin, and a Wash Drains Basin. All of these systems are located inside of a building, providing an added layer of design consideration in terms of placement, access, and long-term maintenance of the systems.

Anywhere that systems are housed, but especially when they are located inside of a building, it is important to consider the maintenance of the system and factor in the ability to access and remove all parts.

The lift stations Romtec Utilities designed and supplied collects blowdown water from the power plant’s boiler. We designed the vault around the oil water separator which will discharge into the Hot Sump Basin with temperatures expected as high as 200 Fahrenheit.

The oil water separator has a high-water level switch, oil/water interface level transmitter, and a 300 gallon Highland tank. There is a removable section of the oil water separator vault where three nonslip aluminum hatches are inset into the removable section of the vault top.

The vault for the oil water separator is precast concrete from Oldcastle Infrastructure with Pedestrian Rated hatches from Ej.

Romtec Utilities provided the design and supply of these systems for the end owner, Duke Energy’s, new CHP plant. The new plant will produce more power for Duke Energy’s grid and increase its reliability.

IC Thomason and Associates was the civil engineer. IC Thomason is an engineering consulting firm out of Nashville, Tennessee.

Romtec Utilities provides pump stations and other systems for industrial applications like power plants, oil and gas plants, food and beverage, and data center cooling waste. We design and supply pump systems for a variety of different water types all over the country.

At Romtec Utilities we have worked with a variety of power plants over the years providing industrial pumping systems to meet their project’s pumping needs. We design and supply pump stations for industrial pumping projects all over the country and this power plant is another example of how we can design projects in caustic pumping environments. Our team knows the right types of pumps to choose for these types of high temperature environments. We send a site advisor upon installation, provide commissioning, training, and a robust warranty.

If you have a need for an oil water separator pump station, contact us today.

Here are the features of the systems we provided:

OWS (Oily Water Separator)
– Precast ~13′ length x 7′ wide Oil Water separator tank