Vacuum Sewer

Vacuum Sewer

A vacuum sewer system uses the differential pressure between atmospheric pressure and a partial vacuum maintained in the piping network and vacuum station collection vessel. This differential pressure allows a central vacuum station to collect the wastewater of several thousand individual homes, depending on terrain and the local situation. Vacuum sewers take advantage of available natural slope in the terrain and are most economical in flat sandy soils with high ground water.

Vacuum sewers were first installed in Europe in 1882 but until the last 30 years it had been relegated to a niche market. The first who has applied the negative pressure drainage (so called vacuum sewerage) was the Dutch engineer Charles Liernur in the second half of the 19th century. It was only used on ships, trains and airplanes for a long time. Technical implementations of vacuum sewerage systems were started after 1959 in Sweden by Joel Liljendahl and afterwards brought onto the market by Electrolux. Nowadays several system suppliers offer a wide range of products for many applications.

This section covers land based vacuum systems but the technology is also used on aircraft, ships, trains as well as in buildings. Supermarkets, prisons, marinas and many commercial buildings are using vacuum systems as well as vacuum toilets which can reduce the amount of water flushed away to less than 1 litre per flush. The NASA Space Shuttle uses vacuum toilet technology to reduce water requirements.