System solutions for Water treatment plants Bonn

The former waterworks also stands for milestones in the history of water treatment and drinking water supply in Bonn. In 1875, it was opened along with the neo-Gothic pumping station building. The waterworks processed Rhine bank filtrate for the growing city – using the latest control, measuring and regulating technology for water treatment of its time.

This has long been a thing of the past. As early as 1958, Bonn received its drinking water from the Wahnbach reservoir in the Rhine-Sieg district. The old waterworks was shut down. More and more government buildings were erected around it. After the Bundestag returned to the renovated plenary hall for a few years in 1992 (before moving to Berlin), the waterworks became a stage for meetings, congresses and concerts.

Water treatment Bonn: Where does Bonn’s drinking water come from?

The most important source for Bonn’s drinking water treatment is the Wahnbachtalsperre. Its operator and the largest drinking water purifier in the region is the Wahnbachtalsperrenverband WTV. Around 800,000 consumers in Bonn, the Rhine-Sieg district and the Ahrweiler district receive their drinking water from the WTV. Bonn’s annual water consumption is around 22 million cubic meters.

Bonn’s drinking water is of mineral water quality. It meets all the requirements of the German Drinking Water Ordinance (TrinkwV) and falls below all limits. As everywhere in Germany, drinking water in Bonn is the most controlled and most important foodstuff.

To ensure that the water quality is always consistently good, chemical analyses and almost 2,000 bacteriological tests a year are permanently carried out in the special laboratories of the WTV. All water treatment plants are tested. The experts take samples everywhere – from the reservoir water to the raw water inflows to the distribution network. Indispensable for tests like these are measuring devices for chemical parameters, sensors, chemical rapid tests or water analyzers from Neomeris, Hildesheim. The hardness level is also tested with water hardness meters. The 2019 Bonn drinking water analyses showed 4.7 to 8.1 °dH (degrees of German hardness). This means that the drinking water of the federal city is soft.

Three water treatment plants are operated by WTV:

• Water treatment plant Siegelsknippen with water from the Wahnbachtalsperre
• Groundwater plant Hennefer Siegbogen with groundwater wells
• Groundwater plant Sankt Augustin-Meindorf

Everywhere the water is soft and low in lime. In each water treatment plant in Bonn, comes the most modern, precise measurement technology, control and regulation technology for industrial water treatment used.

Water treatment, Bonn, using the example of the Wahnbachtalsperre

The raw water from the Wahnbachtalsperre is pumped from the Seligenthal pumping station about 100 meters up to the Siegelsknippen water treatment plant. If necessary, the pumping station can already add potassium permagnate to oxidize dissolved manganese. Also possible here is the addition of powdered activated carbon to adsorb organic trace substances, odors and tastes. Step one of the water treatment Bonn in Siegelsknippen is flocculation. A flocculant is added to the raw water to bind foreign particles. This is followed by filtration, in which the water percolates through a layer of coarse-grained anthracite and another of fine quartz sand. The layers filter out the flakes. Then the water is pumped up through the same filters from the bottom to catch light contaminants. The next step is called disinfection to kill microorganisms. For this, chlorine dioxide is used, reliably checked by sensory- or wet-chemistry-based measuring devices for chlorine dioxide content. At the last station, residual deacidification, pure lime water is added to the drinking water to bind residual carbonic acid. This is done in a large mixer that can be viewed under a glass dome.

Further water treatment plants for Bonn drinking water

Groundwater is pumped from a well at Hennef Siegbogen. Via the Seligenthal pumping station, it reaches the Siegelsknippen water treatment plant, where water from the Wahnbachtalsperre is also treated. However, the Hennef groundwater undergoes separate treatment. Still in Seligenthal, physical deacidification of excess carbon dioxide is carried out by means of corrugated rail tricklers. Since the water is largely free of particles, it is fed directly into the quartz sand filters at the Siegelskrippen water treatment plant without flocculation. At the Sankt Augustin-Meindorf waterworks, groundwater is drawn from the lower Sieg River in three horizontal filter wells. Physical deacidification takes place here by atomization of the excess carbon dioxide. The water then percolates through four quartz sand double filters. Pure lime water is added for residual deacidification. Before the drinking water finally enters the network, it is disinfected with chlorine dioxide (source: Stadtwerke Bonn, WTV).

Water treatment, Bonn: ultrapure water and process water

At an industrial and high-tech location like Bonn, there is also demand for other types of water. Process water, for example: it is used to operate industrial plants and is subject to less stringent standards and limits than drinking water. Pure water or pharmaceutical water, finally, is needed by medical technology, semiconductor production or the food industry. Manufacturers of ultrapure water are specialists in industrial water treatment. They work with precision equipment for measurement and control technology & sensor technology as well as with the most modern treatment processes, which ensure the necessary high quality. Examples include control systems for reverse osmosis plants.

 

Modern control, measurement and regulation technology for water treatment Bonn. Neomeris, Hildesheim.