Transfer Pump

Heating Oil Removal System for an Apartment Building

MAE2 worked with a consultant who needed a pump and treat system to extract groundwater from two wells and then re-inject the treated water.

The project goal is to remove heating oil from the groundwater, removing any long-term liability concerns for the apartment complex owners

MAE2 built the system using a custom modified cargo container. The enclosure consisted of two rooms. The first room contained the control panel and the air supply compressor. The second room included the water treatment system and was built to meet the requirements for Class 1 Div 2 hazardous environments. Both rooms included lights, ventilation fans and heat. The system components were completely tested before shipping to make certain the system was ready to run on site with no downtime.

Heating Oil Removal System for an Apartment Building

The system is a Pump and Treat and Groundwater Treatment system designed for up to 30 GPM water flow. MAE2 provided 2 QED AP4+ Pneumatic Groundwater Pumps complete with downwell air, water discharge and exhaust hoses and well caps. The system had a Reciprocating Air Compressor connected to an air supply manifold that included pressure and flow controls. Air hose was used to connect the trailer air supply manifold with the downwell pneumatic pumps.

Pump and Treat and Groundwater Treatment system

The water discharge from the pumps connected to the multi point extraction manifold. The manifold piped the extracted groundwater to an Oil Water Separator to remove any free product heating oil. Any free fuel that is collected gravity drains into a 250 gallon product holding tank. A centrifugal transfer pump sends the water to two parallel high pressure fiberglass carbon vessels for treatment before discharge. The water passes through a flow totalizer to record total gallons treated prior to discharge to sanitary sewer. The system is controlled by a custom relay control panel that includes an externally mounted flashing alarm light.

Components used in this system

Relay Control panel

Carbon Filtration

Oil Water Separator

Centrifugal Transfer Pump

Reciprocating Air Compressor

Down well Pneumatic Pumps

Custom Cargo Container Enclosure

Rail Yard Iron and Suspended Solids Treatment System Upgrade and Expansion

MAE2 was selected to provide a system to remove iron and suspended solids and to fully integrate into the operation of an existing system and controls.

While many companies have the ability to build a new system based upon a written specification, expanding an existing system and seamlessly integrating the new components and controls requires extensive industry knowledge and experience. MAE2 was selected to provide a system to remove iron suspended solids and to fully integrate into the operation of the existing system and controls.

The fouling and constant maintenance caused by the iron and suspended solids was preventing the existing water treatment system from effectively reaching the treatment goals required. MAE2’s 23 years of groundwater system design experience, our flexible manufacturing capacity and our UL control panel shop made us the perfect partner to help create a successful solution for a challenging site.

Rail Yard Treatment System Upgrade and Expansion

MAE2 worked with the consulting engineer to understand the existing system operation and plan the best way to augment the system and improve the treatment results. The existing system included electric and pneumatic submersible pumps that pumped fuel contaminated groundwater to an air stripper for treatment.

MAE2 was selected to provide a system to remove iron suspended solids

MAE2 worked to design and fabricate custom tanks and to design and program a custom PLC control panel to work with the existing treatment system. In the new expanded system, the extracted groundwater is pumped into a new, custom fabricated, 3000-gallon aeration tank. A chemical metering pump is used to add chemicals into the aeration tank to help precipitate dissolved iron.

Two 5 HP Rotary Claw Compressors skid mounted in parallel provide aeration in the tank at 82 CFM and 22 PSI. Fuel vapors created in the aeration tank are removed by a 3 HP regenerative vacuum blower operating at 55 CFM and 58” WC vacuum. Any residual moisture is captured in an 80-gallon Vapor Liquid Separator that includes a High-Level alarm switch and manual drain.

Rotary Claw Compressors

The vapor steam passes through the blower and then a ½ HP heat exchanger to reduce the temperature so that the 200 LB steel vapor carbon vessel can effectively remove any fuel vapors before discharging to the atmosphere. The Aeration tank is equipped with a user programmable level transmitter that controls the on/off operation of a 200 GPM, 5 HP Centrifugal Transfer Pump. The water is pumped to a custom, three stage clarifier tank.

The tank includes a polymer metering system followed by a flash chamber and electronic mixer, a flocculent chamber and electronic mixer and finally an inclined plate clarifier with hopper bottom. This removes most of the larger suspended solids and precipitated iron. The water gravity feed into a custom, 1000 gallon filtration feed tank. In order to remove any fine suspended solids, the water is pumped through a fully automated, four vessel, sand filter system.

The sand filter includes a 3000 gallon, backwash water tank and a 3000 gallon, backwash solids tank. The system PLC control panel uses pressure transmitters and automated ball valves to backwash the sand filters and pumps the captured solids to the holding tank without stopping treatment flow. A 63 GPM sludge pump controlled by a user programmable level transmitter pumps the collected solids to a custom, 3000 Gallon Settling Tank. The tank has a sludge/solids settling basin in the bottom and a custom designed liquid decanting valve system to drain liquids. The treated, solids-free water, effluent from the sand filtration system is pumped to the existing air stripper for final treatment and removal of any remaining fuel.

This Remediation System uses the following components and subsystems

Regenerative Vacuum Pump

PLC Control panel

Sand Filter

Vapor Liquid Separator

Centrifugal Transfer Pump

Rotary Claw Compressor

Incline Plate Clarifiers

Chemical Pre Treatment Systems

Vapor Phase Carbon

Rental System for Remediation of a Redevelopment site.

MAE2 was selected to provide a rental system to remediate a former gas station site that had been redeveloped.

MAE2 had previously provided a rental system that successfully removed most of the gasoline contamination from the site but had to be removed to allow for construction when the property was sold for redevelopment. The remaining fuel contamination was concentrated in a smaller area. Renting a system was a perfect option for this site. After the site was redeveloped, a different smaller system was chosen to complete the site remediation saving both rental and operating cost.

ental system for a redevelopment site

The fuel contamination was limited to the vadose zone soils, so the system selected was an air sparge, soil vapor extraction system. This involves pumping air into the pressure wells to volatilize residual fuel and to stimulate bio remediation activity. The soil vapor extraction creates further volatilization and extraction of soil vapors. The system is enclosed in an 8’ x 14’ utility trailer with insulated walls and ventilation fan and lights.

The air sparge unit is a 7.5 HP Rotary Vane Compressor capable of providing 55 ACFM @ 20 PSI to a two point manifold with each leg including a pressure gauge and a ball valve. The vapor wells are connected to a two point extraction manifold that includes a gate valve and vacuum gauge for each leg. The soil vapor extraction consists of a marine grade aluminum vapor liquid separator and a 15 HP regenerative vacuum blower capable of 350 SCFM @ 85” WC vacuum. The vapor liquid separator includes a centrifugal transfer pump to empty any water that is collected. The system includes a relay based control panel to allow for simple fully automated control.

This Remediation System uses the following components and subsystems

Regenerative Vacuum Pump

Relay Control panel

Vapor Liquid Separator

Centrifugal Transfer Pump

Rotary Vane Air Compressor

Rotary Claw Compressor

City Convenience Store Environmental Remediation Site

MAE2 was selected to design and build a remediation system for a convenience store site in mixed use city location.

The consultant conducted a multiple day test at the site. The pilot study indicated a need for a high vacuum system that could treat extracted groundwater at 10-15 GPM and to remove large amounts of free product gasoline. MAE2 used this data to design a system that would extract and treat groundwater and free product from 6 wells located on site. The water needed to be treated to meet the discharge limits for water quality and suspended solids required by the local POTW.


MAE2 used the pilot test data to design and provide written specifications for a Multi Phase Extraction and Groundwater Treatment system. The system needed to remove and treat TPH-Gasoline concentrations as high as 230,000 PPB and MTBE concentrations of 4,600 PPB along with free product gasoline.

The system uses 3 high vacuum rotary claw pumps, providing over 700 ACFM flow at 18” HG vacuum, to extract impacted groundwater and vapors. The client prefers to use multiple pumps operating in parallel rather than a single large pump. This design provides more flexibility to save energy as site needs change over time, along with redundancy to reduce downtime. The system uses a 6 point custom inlet manifold and a marine grade aluminum 120 gallon Air Water Separator.

A progressive cavity transfer pump is used to pump the water to a 20 GPM Oil Water Separator to remove any free product gasoline. Progressive Cavity pumps are selected because they do not create the chemical emulsification of the gasoline and water that other pumps cause. After the Oil Water Separator removes the free product a centrifugal transfer pump sends the water through a bag filter to remove solids and particles from the water before being treated by an oversized Poly Stackable Tray Air Stripper.

convenience store remediation system.Componentsjpg

The stripper is oversized to provide additional residence time to treat the MTBE. Finally the water is pumped through another bag filter and then two 250 LB Liquid carbon vessels before being discharged to the POTW.

The custom integrated PLC control panel provides runtime hours, vacuum trends, temperature, carbon vessel pressure and water flow totals. The system uses a cellular data connection allowing full system control and data access through easy to use web browser access. The data allows easy access to system operational status and the data needed for writing reports as required by the regulators.

This Environmental Remediation System uses the following components and subsystems