System solutions for Water treatment plants Duisburg

Duisburg consumes over 30 billion liters of drinking water per year. The volume is roughly equivalent to that of two hundred million filled bathtubs. The Duisburg drinking water pipeline network is over 2,000 kilometers long.

This is almost equivalent to the distance from Duisburg to Istanbul. On average, the people of Duisburg consume 120 liters of water per day.

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

Duisburg lies on the Rhine. And indeed, Germany’s largest river also supplies the lion’s share of Duisburg’s drinking water. Around 70 percent of it comes from Rhenish groundwater and spring water. The main water extraction and treatment for Duisburg takes place in the northern outskirts of the neighboring city of Düsseldorf and in the Hohe Mark Nature Park near Recklinghausen. About 13 percent of Duisburg’s drinking water is obtained from lakes, reservoirs or surface river water. The remaining approximately 17 percent is original surface water, which has a similar composition to groundwater due to soil seepage or bank filtration.
The soil under the Rhine is highly siliceous. Due to a long flow path in the soil, the raw water is usually already germ-free. As it seeps away, it absorbs many natural substances, including calcium and magnesium. Their content also largely determines the water hardness, which is checked with water hardness meters. In the Duisburg districts south of the Ruhr and in Rumeln and Rheinhausen, the drinking water is hard, while north of the Ruhr it is of medium hardness.

Waterworks and water treatment plants for Duisburg

Two water treatment plants in Düsseldorf “belong” to Duisburg residents. Stadtwerke Duisburg operates the waterworks in Düsseldorf-Wittlaer and Düsseldorf-Bockum, in the very north of the state capital. The two districts border directly on Duisburg. They supply the Duisburg urban area on both sides of the Rhine south of the Ruhr. The districts on the right bank of the Rhine north of the Ruhr receive their drinking water from a waterworks on the Haltern reservoir. The Baerl district gets it from a waterworks in Binsheimer Feld.

How water treatment plants for Duisburg work is illustrated by the example in Wittlaer. There, ozone is first added to the raw water to reliably kill any last remaining germs. High-precision ozone generators and ozone measuring technology are indispensable in this process.

Next, the water flows into the filter hall and here first through a layer of gravel. This is followed by a two-meter-thick layer of activated carbon, in which organic compounds settle. If the measuring equipment for water treatment indicates corresponding values, the water is additionally “deacidified” with sodium hydroxide solution.

Only in exceptional cases is enrichment with chlorine carried out. These exceptions include a failure of the ozone system or floods that impair the natural filter functions of the soil.

Measuring devices and control technology for drinking water control, Duisburg

Raw water has now become drinking water, but its quality must be controlled both chemically and microbiologically. Precise measurement and control technology for industrial water treatment, such as that from Neomeris, Hildesheim, is indispensable here. If all the values are correct, the water from the Wittlaer waterworks is piped to the Bockum waterworks, which is even closer to Duisburg, and combined with the drinking water treated there.

As far as drinking water quality is concerned, the strictest standards and statutory regulations apply in Duisburg as everywhere else in Germany. Essentially, these are DIN 2000, the General Ordinance for the Supply of Water (AVBWasserV) and the Drinking Water Ordinance (TrinkwV). Nevertheless, media reports or consumer voices are always critical of the quality of drinking water. To be on the safe side, the two municipal utilities of Duisburg and Neuss and the Mönchengladbach and Viersen-based NEW Niederrhein Wasser have joined forces to form an action group: they have their drinking water regularly tested for certain antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic-resistance genes at the DVGW Technology Center for Water in Karlsruhe (source: Stadtwerke Duisburg).

Process water and ultrapure water on the Rhine and Ruhr

Despite structural change in the Ruhr region, Duisburg is still primarily an industrial city. According to Wikipedia, Duisburg’s eight blast furnaces supply nearly one-third of Germany’s pig iron production. At the same time, the tradition-steeped steel production and metal processing industries are increasingly advancing into high-tech industries.

In addition to around 250,000 households, the municipal utilities also supply numerous commercial and industrial customers. Process water is also likely to play a role in this. Process water is not intended for drinking. However, it must not contain any components that could damage production facilities or conflict with its intended use.

The specifications for ultrapure water or pharmaceutical water are even stricter than for drinking water or process water. Both are products that are usually supplied by specialized water treatment companies. Ultrapure water is used, for example, in the food industry or semiconductor production. Pharmaceutical water is used, among other things, in the production of medicines or in the manufacture of solar modules. Both types of water must contain practically no foreign substances, including calcium or magnesium. Producing them requires the most precise and modern measuring equipment and control technology. A guarantor for this: Heyl-Neomeris in Hildesheim

 

System solutions for process monitoring in water treatment with technology from Neomeris, Hildesheim