Older industrial UV systems do not always need to be completely replaced.
At one large brewery, two Wedeco UV reactors were still mechanically usable, but the electrical and optical components had become unreliable. Instead of removing the entire installation, the project focused on restoring the parts that had failed while keeping the existing hydraulic section.
The original system
The brewery operates its own wastewater treatment facilities, and two German-made Wedeco UV units were installed at the final disinfection stage.
Over time, the equipment stopped working properly.
The main problems were:
lamp power supplies failed to start or shut down with errors;
the UV lamps had reached the end of their service life;
quartz sleeves were heavily contaminated with deposits;
the original control system had become difficult to repair and maintain.
By the time the modernization began, the UV section was no longer in operation.
Why full replacement was not necessary
The reactor bodies, pipework and hydraulic connections were still in usable condition.
That meant the project could be approached as a retrofit rather than as a complete replacement.
The idea was to keep:
the stainless-steel reactor housings;
the existing pipework;
the hydraulic layout;
the installed connection points.
And replace:
UV lamps;
quartz sleeves;
seals;
lamp power supplies;
control cabinets;
monitoring and control components.
This reduced the amount of mechanical work required on the wastewater line.
New control system
Two new control modules were installed.
Each module used individual power supplies for 10 UV lamps.
Compared with the original grouped electrical architecture, this made maintenance easier because each lamp circuit could be handled separately.
The system also received:
new control cabinets;
new lamp power supplies;
local control;
remote control;
operator-panel integration.
Replacing the optical components
A total of 20 lamp and quartz-sleeve sets were replaced.
The new lamps were selected to fit the existing Wedeco connection format.
The quartz sleeves and seals were also replaced because the old components were no longer suitable for reliable operation.
According to the project data, the updated configuration increased UV power by approximately 20% compared with the previous setup.
SCADA integration
Another important change was the integration with the plant control system.
The upgraded equipment could be operated in two modes:
locally, near the UV units;
remotely, from the operator workstation.
This allowed the UV stage to become part of the overall wastewater-treatment monitoring system rather than remain isolated equipment.
Installation on an operating site
The modernization was carried out without stopping the entire wastewater treatment facility.
The work included:
dismantling the old control cabinets;
keeping the existing cable routes where possible;
replacing lamps and quartz sleeves;
installing the new electrical cabinets;
connecting the operator panel;
commissioning in local and remote modes;
training the plant personnel.
The full project took about 45 working days, including manufacturing, delivery, installation and testing.
What this project shows
Aging UV equipment often fails first in the electrical and consumable components rather than in the reactor body itself.
Before replacing an old industrial UV system completely, it can make sense to check whether the following elements are still usable:
reactor housing;
pipe connections;
hydraulic layout;
mounting points;
existing infrastructure.
If those parts are still in good condition, replacing the lamps, quartz sleeves, control cabinets and power electronics can be a practical alternative to rebuilding the entire system.
In this case, two inactive Wedeco reactors were returned to operation, received new control architecture and were integrated with the plant's monitoring system without replacing the main hydraulic equipment.
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