Home / Market Sectors / Utilities & Waste Management
Compressed Air, Blowers and Process Equipment for Utilities, Water and Waste
Wastewater works, materials recovery facilities and waste transfer stations run around the clock in conditions that wear plant out fast: wet air, abrasive sludge, grit, airborne dust and organic waste. Choosing waste management equipment for those sites means choosing plant that keeps working in the worst conditions, and a supplier who can keep it working.
Control Gear Group, specialists in compressed air and industrial equipment, was founded in Treforest in 1973 and is an Atlas Copco Premier Distributor. We cover South Wales and the South West on site and supply UK-wide.
What Does a Water or Waste Site Need From Its Equipment Supplier?
Continuous operation comes first. A blower that trips at a wastewater works starves the biological treatment of the air it depends on. A baler that stops at a recycling plant backs material up across the tipping floor. Neither site can wait for a part that won’t arrive until next week.
Energy cost is the second pressure. Aeration blowers and compressors on a site that never shuts down run every hour of the year, so the efficiency of the machine shows on every electricity bill.
Compliance is the third. Air receivers, accumulators, extraction systems and dust exposure all carry legal duties, and an environmental permit adds its own conditions on top.
Control Gear supplies and services the blowers, compressors, valves, hydraulics, extraction, filtration and hose that water and waste sites run on, under one team.
50+
years of industrial equipment experience
Compressed Air and Low-Pressure Blowers
Compressed air has been the core of our compressed air division for over 50 years, and on a utility or waste site it does two quite different jobs. Some duties need low-pressure air in large volumes. Others need clean, dry air at normal plant pressure. Getting the machine type right for each duty is where most of the energy saving sits.
Aeration Blowers for Wastewater Treatment
Activated sludge treatment depends on bacteria, and those bacteria need a constant supply of air diffused into the aeration lanes. That’s a low-pressure, high-volume duty, which is why it belongs to a blower rather than a compressor. We supply and service Atlas Copco low-pressure blowers, including the ZS screw blower and ZB ranges, with variable speed drives that let output follow oxygen demand as the load into the works rises and falls through the day.
The scale of the sector makes blower efficiency matter: Defra’s wastewater treatment data for 2022 counts 1,451 urban wastewater treatment plants in England alone.
Blower sizing starts from your process design: the air demand of the aeration lanes and the depth of the diffusers, figures your process engineer owns. We size, supply and maintain the blowers to match them. If the figures are old, check them before replacing a lobe blower like for like.
Clean, Dry Air for Sorting and Conveying
At a materials recovery facility, optical sorters fire short bursts of air to knock target material out of the stream. Oil or water in that air fouls the sensor optics and cuts sorting accuracy, so we specify oil-free ISO 8573-1 Class 0 compressors for those lines, with dryers and filtration behind them.
Pneumatic conveying of plastic flake and shredded paper is often a better fit for a low-pressure blower than a compressor. Our page on air compressors for recycling plants covers conveying blowers, IP-rated enclosures against dust, low-noise enclosures for urban sites and containerised plant rooms.
Behind the machines sit leak detection surveys, energy audits, Atlas Copco OSC oil-water separators for condensate, service plans and 24/7 emergency breakdown cover across South Wales and the West.
Dust, Bioaerosol and Fume Extraction for Recycling Plants
Sorting halls are dusty, and the dust is rarely just dust. HSE guidance on sorting and processing waste says workers at materials recovery facilities can be exposed to general airborne dust above 10 mg/m³ as an 8-hour average, the level at which it counts as a substance hazardous to health, along with fungi, bacteria and endotoxins. HSE expects local exhaust ventilation among the controls.
As an authorised Nederman distributor and Gold Channel Partner, we supply:
- Dust collectors and stationary filter systems for picking cabins, shredder outlets and baler feeds
- Odour and gas extraction for waste and sludge buildings
- ATEX-compliant combustible dust systems where fire risk is part of the picture
The full range is on our dust and fume extraction page. Our certified engineers carry out LEV testing. Under regulation 9 of COSHH, LEV must be thoroughly examined and tested at least once every 14 months, and the records kept for at least five years.
A proper test shows the hood still captures the dust at the face, and that’s what protects the person standing in front of it.
Process Valves and Actuators for Water, Sludge and Dosing Lines
Valves on water and wastewater duties see solids, grit and treatment chemicals, often on lines that run continuously. Lined ball and butterfly valves suit chemical dosing, globe valves regulate water and steam, and check valves protect pumped lines against reverse flow. We supply the full range, matched to the medium, the pressure and the duty, with gate valves for isolation. The process valves and actuators page lists the options.
A valve on a treatment works is only as reliable as the actuator driving it. Sticking actuators on dosing and aeration control valves usually trace back to wet or dirty air, so we treat the valve, the actuator and the air supply as one system.
As an official Festo partner, we supply Festo pneumatics and automation for valve actuation and process control, alongside IMI Norgren as an authorised distributor.
Why Do Balers, Compactors and Shredders Keep Breaking Down?
Usually because of the oil. Dust and water get into hydraulic systems on waste plant, wear pumps and valves from the inside and cause the stoppages that send someone into the machine to clear it.
That matters more here than in most industries. HSE’s machinery safety guidance for waste and recycling says many serious and fatal accidents happen while clearing blockages or making repairs with machinery still running. Fewer breakdowns mean fewer of those interventions.
We repair hydraulic pumps, cylinders, motors and valves in our workshop and on site. We also:
- Replace hose
- Supply, repair and recertify accumulators, with a same-day removal, recertification and refit service
- Supply HYDAC filtration and fluid care units that remove water from hydraulic oil, as a HYDAC partner
- Carry out oil sampling and ISO 4406 cleanliness monitoring, so you can see contamination building before it stops the baler
Our hydraulics division handles design, upgrades and planned maintenance packages.
Pressure Systems, Explosive Atmospheres and the Paperwork Behind Them
Under the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000, a pressure system must not be operated until a written scheme of examination is in place. Compressor receivers, blower packages with pressure vessels and hydraulic accumulators can all fall within it. We prepare Written Schemes of Examination for compressed air systems, because a receiver that fails in a plant room hurts whoever is standing near it.
We hold ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 accreditation, and our engineers are F-Gas certified.
Biogas at sewage works and anaerobic digestion plants, and combustible dust in sorting halls, bring the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations into play. We supply extraction and hose rated for the zone you give us. The zone classification itself belongs to your DSEAR assessment, so if a plant change has moved a boundary, update the assessment before the equipment schedule.
Oxygen Generation, Filtration, Pneumatics and Hose
Wastewater treatment plants use oxygen generators to improve the efficiency of biological treatment. Atlas Copco PSA oxygen generators produce oxygen on site at 90 to 95% purity, which removes delivered gas and the handling that comes with it.
Oxygen Generator Service
Oxygen Generator Service
We sell, service and maintain oxygen generators through our industrial gases division, driven by the same compressed air plant we look after.
Process Water Filtration
Process Water Filtration
Process water needs filtering too. We’ve been an authorised Pall industrial filtration distributor for well over 20 years and are official distributors for 3M Cuno, with process water filtration, baskets and strainers. HYDAC AutoFilt back-flushing filters clean themselves on process water lines without a shutdown.
Monitoring and Ambient Air Filtration
Monitoring and Ambient Air Filtration
Our industrial and process filtration team adds condition monitoring, site surveys and ambient air filtration for control rooms and welfare areas.
Pneumatics for Sorting Lines
Pneumatics for Sorting Lines
On sorting lines, Festo and IMI Norgren valves, cylinders and air preparation drive diverters, gates and ejectors.
Hose for Transfer Duties
Hose for Transfer Duties
For transfer duties, our BFPA-certified hose team makes up suction and delivery hose, layflat hose and ATEX hose assemblies.
Talk to Control Gear About Your Site
If your LEV test certificate is more than 12 months old, or your blowers are due for replacement, send us the certificate date, the blower duty or the baler’s hydraulic schematic. Our Treforest team will come back with matched options across blowers, valves, hydraulics and extraction:
- Aeration lanes: Atlas Copco low-pressure blowers, oxygen generators
- Sorting and conveying: oil-free Class 0 compressors, conveying blowers, dryers, Festo and IMI Norgren pneumatics
- Pipework and dosing: ball, butterfly, globe, gate and check valves with actuators
- Balers, compactors, shredders: hydraulic repairs, accumulators, HYDAC filtration and fluid care
- Sorting halls and waste buildings: Nederman dust, odour and combustible dust extraction, LEV testing
- Process water and transfer: Pall and 3M Cuno filtration, suction, layflat and ATEX hose
Call 01443 843126 or use the contact form to arrange a site visit.
Get in touch
Contact Control Gear today
Tell us about your site and we’ll come back with the right service, audit or system recommendation.
- Visit us Heol Groeswen, Treforest Industrial Estate, Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taff, CF37 5YF
- Call us 01443 843126
- Email us enquiries@control-gear.com
Mon–Fri · 09:00–17:00
24/7 emergency call-out available