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“Small wastewater treatment plants (2 – 8 bedroom houses), simple, clean, secure and economic: ECOMAX®“.

Many years of experience from almost 100,000 small wastewater treatment plants sold worldwide combined with unique requirements for our many customers have motivated us to enhance our wastewater treatment plants.

We have brought together the best features from our proven wastewater treatment plants and have thus developed a very simple and reliable SBR technology. As a result of our highly reliable McWater® SBR plant a very simplified version of the proven SBR process has resulted – matched precisely to the conditions of one- or multi-family dwellings.

As with our proven APURIS® plant we have improved the systems operating efficiency by eliminating solenoid valves, as they have shown some failures.  For ECOMAX® we have adopted the patented and secure ball valve from our AQUAmax® BASIC series.

ECOMAX® is the sum of all ATB innovations from almost 100,000 small wastewater treatment plants; consequently developed and matched to the requirements of our customers.

Die PUROO® SBR−Kleinkläranlage schafft auch extreme Abwasserbelastungen.

Die SBR−Kläranlage ECOMAX® ist sicherlich die beste Kleinkläranlage, die wir jemals entwickelt haben. Nicht nur, dass ECOMAX® ganz ohne Pumpen und anfällige elektrische Magnetventile arbeitet, nein:  ECOMAX®−Kleinkläranlagen sind besonders robust. 

Ob 200% Überlastung, eine starke Unterlast von nur 25% oder Abwasserzufluss nur am Wochenende: ECOMAX® beweist jeden Tag, dass auch trotz starker Belastungsschwankungen eine sichere Abwasserreinigung möglich ist. Lesen Sie hierzu auch unseren Kurzbericht vom PIA (Prüfinstitut für Abwassertechnik, Aachen). Mehr..

“Small wastewater treatment plants are too complicated!“

In recent years, small wastewater treatment plants have become increasingly complicated. Many developments in the industry have only taken place because they were possible – not because they are necessary.

A standard SBR small wastewater treatment plant often has up to 4 unreliable solenoid valves or pumps. The control systems have too many functions and too many sensors, which can fail or cause malfunctions.

The result is that operation, scheduled service and repair of the plants have become increasingly complicated in recent years. With ECOMAX® ATB has found a solution to make small wastewater treatment plants simple and secure...

The Technology – “This is how the ECOMAX® functions.“

The water flows via the primary settling stage (1) into the SBR tank (2).

The intermittent aeration takes place in the SBR tank, until the mechanical ball valve (3) float activates the air flow pump (4) due to the higher water level. First, through this activation, the sludge return flow takes place in several short pump strokes.

Settling is the next stage, in this stage the sludge sinks in the SBR tank.

The air lift pump is activated again and now transports the treated water out of the plant (7).

A valve (6) integrated into the outlet differentiates between short pump strokes (= excess sludge draw-off) and longer pump operation (= clarified water draw-off).

With minimum water level the air flow is again switched from the air lift pump to the pipe aerator (5). The sequence starts again from new. The cycle is not time controlled, it is level-dependent. This allows the system to recognize the amount of people who are actually using the system, therefore we can treat single dwellings between 2 – 8 bedrooms.

ECOMAX®− The characteristics

„ ECOMAX® is simple.“

  • Only one air lift pump – because of this less components have to be installed.
  • Only one air hose – the laying of lines between control unit/blower and the plant has been simplified.
  • No solenoid valve but rather a robust, ATB developed ball valve float controls the air flow directly without electrical energy – purely physically. The performance of ATB’s own robust ball valve is superior to that of solenoid valves.
  • Simple operation of the control system as the process has only a few functions.
  • The sampling facility is already integrated.

„ ECOMAX® is economic.“

ECOMAX® saves energy. The water is pumped once only. Conventional SBR wastewater plants transport the water twice.

The service life of the blower is high. As the water is transported once only, the blower runs less.

The power consumption per inhabitant and year is approximately 30 kWh/year.

Low maintenance costs as no solenoid valves or pumps have been employed.

Instead of a solenoid valve: this float switches between draw-off of excess sludge and clarified water draw-off.

Even the sampling is clean.

„ ECOMAX® is clean.“

Whether with severe Under loading or with inflow peaks: ECOMAX® simply adjusts itself to the situation and automatically controls the water level.  

Primary settling stage and SBR chamber are connected with each other. The greater buffer resulting through this ensures a better treatment performance with fluctuating loading. The retention time of the wastewater is increased significantly.

For satisfactory security and increase in the service life we always employ at a minimum 80 Watt blowers. ECOMAX® to ensure sufficient performance reserves.

ECOMAX® safely meets the strict French and Canadian limiting values for filterable solids (AFS) of less than 30 mg/l.


“ ECOMAX® is secure.“

No fault-prone solenoid valves, no pumps in the wastewater.

ECOMAX® operates according to the SBR process. For over 15 years this has been the most frequently installed system with small wastewater treatment plants. As ECOMAX® operates according to the actual wastewater produced; sudden unexpected fluctuations in inflow are also treated securely.

Supplementary to the testing according to NSF40 and DIN EN 12566-3, ECOMAX® has also gone through additional overloaded and underloaded situations in an accredited test facility.

The ball valve float switches between aeration and the transporting of water.