Sewage plants with a fourth purification stage are able to increasingly filter pollutants such as drug residues and other harmful trace substances from the water using activated carbon.
All clean! People in Karlsruhe appreciate the super clean water. Due to the additional purification stage which uses activated carbon, the Karlsruhe sewage plant now filters even microscopic pollutants such a drug residue out of the water. Great for the environment. Great for humans and animals.
The pollutants are not absorbed by the activated carbon, i.e., “stored”, but adsorbed i.e., “accumulated”. This provides the advantage that the adsorbed substances can be recycled relatively easily.
What sounds simple at first is not so trivial when it comes to implementation. Adding another stage to an existing sewage plant with a complex control system, requires deep interventions in this control system. A task made for the specialists at GESA. About 4,000 so-called data points alone provide information, unfortunately, with different standards, i.e., technical “languages”. Suitable translators are needed here, technically speaking interfaces, so all data can be used and each unit in the system understands correctly what it is now supposed to do.
This is a huge challenge in the field of automation technology, especially regarding the integration of new plant components into the existing plant during operation. The smallest error can have disastrous consequences or, under certain circumstances, lead to the outage of the entire plant.
For full procedural control over such a complex plant, a wide variety of measurement technology and local control units are required. The field of electrical engineering is complemented by lightning protection systems, fire alarm systems, safety lighting, air-conditioning technology, lighting technology and control switchgear. In these switchgears, all relevant signals run on programmable logic controllers in order to be able to monitor and control the plant via a higher-level process control system.
The project with an order volume of € 2.5 million, was successfully implemented by GESA and consigned to the customer for further use. This exemplary project will certainly be a game-changer for many other sewage plants worldwide. Clean water secures the future for all of us.
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