System solutions for Water treatment plants Wuppertal

The individual cities and communities had already developed their own drinking water supply networks long before unification in 1929. As a result, Wuppertal still draws its drinking water from three very different sources. In the water supply network, the respective self-sufficient structures of old can still be recognized. Incidentally, the total length of Wuppertal’s water pipelines is 1,200 kilometers. This is almost equivalent to the distance between Wuppertal and Naples.

Data and facts on water treatment Wuppertal

Another reason for the different sources of drinking water is that the local Wupper River was no longer suitable for drawing water from bank filtrates as early as the mid-19th century. Textile and chemical industries polluted the water too much and endangered health and hygiene. Ergo, the cities and communities of today’s Wuppertal created new concepts for water extraction and treatment using the latest measurement and control technology of their time.

The city of Elberfeld opened its first municipal waterworks in 1879. However, it was located in Benrath, which is now a district on the southern edge of Düsseldorf. Here, mainly Rhine bank filtrate is still processed into drinking water for Vohwinkel and Elberfeld-West. With 8.7 million cubic meters, the Benrath waterworks supplies about one-third of the total drinking water for Wuppertal.

Where does Wuppertal’s drinking water come from?

The east of Wuppertal receives its water from the Herbringhauser dam, completed in 1900, and the Kerspetalsperre, built in 1912. The water from both reservoirs is treated at the Herbringhausen waterworks and brought here, pun intended. The annual volume is about six million cubic meters. The third main source of water for Wuppertal dates back to the late 1950s: the Dhünntalsperre. In 1978, it was expanded almost tenfold to become the Great Dhünntalsperre. The city draws around 12 million cubic meters of drinking water from it every year, which is treated at the Dabringhausen waterworks.

The Wuppertal waterworks use different water treatment techniques, as the dam water and the Rhine bank filtrate have different raw water values and differ greatly in terms of their basic composition. Here as well as there, the most modern and precise measuring devices as well as high-tech control and regulation technology are used, as offered by Neomeris from Hildesheim. This ensures that the Wuppertal water treatment plant meets all the standards and regulations of the German Drinking Water Ordinance.

The Bergisches Land region is very rich in rain and snow. At the reservoirs, annual precipitation can be twice as high as in the city. In the surrounding area, water protection areas are spreading out, which are used in an environmentally friendly way in cooperation with local farmers.

Water treatment in Wuppertal: sources, technologies and environmental protection

The Herbringhausen and Dabringhausen waterworks operate in a similar way, as the raw water from both dams is of almost identical quality. In micro-screening plants, the coarse foreign matter is removed with stainless steel net filters. After adding a flocculant, the fine turbid matter is deposited in larger flakes. These are removed in the first filter stages by means of two coarse filters. Subsequently, the treated water is ozonated in order to disinfect it. The ozone required for this is generated on site by ozone generators and the required concentration is permanently monitored by sensors. Heyl-Neomeris also offers the complete range of the necessary plant technology for this area.

The second filter stages of both waterworks remove the reaction products of ozonation with activated carbon filters. Precise ozone measurement technology ensures reliable control. This is followed in each case by a third filter stage with natural limestone filter. Here the water is freed from excess carbonic acid. The final stage of water treatment Wuppertal in these two waterworks is disinfection with chlorine dioxide, which can be monitored, for example, by state-of-the-art sensory or wet-chemical analysis technology from Heyl-Neomeris.

Drinking water treatment of reservoir water and Rhine bank filtrate

The situation is different in Benrath. The Rhine bank filtrate there is extracted from deep wells and enriched with onshore groundwater from a nature reserve on the left bank of the Rhine. The waterworks was recently extensively modernized and went back into operation in 2019 with the latest control, measurement and regulation technology.

Since then, water treatment has been running with a new deacidification plant and top-modernized softening plant with the latest water hardness measurement technology. Also renewed: the process control technology with its system solutions for process monitoring. Finally, new pipes were laid and new fittings installed. The Benrath waterworks thus stands for the healthiest and most efficient water treatment with the latest technology (source: WSW Wuppertaler Stadtwerke).

In addition to drinking water, process water is also treated and ultrapure water is produced for large cities like Wuppertal. Process water or cooling water supplies industrial plants or power stations. Ultrapure water does not contain any foreign substances. It is needed in food, semiconductor and pharmaceutical production. Every form of water treatment requires the most precise analysis, measurement and control technology as well as control equipment.

High-tech equipment for water treatment from Neomeris, Hildesheim