The application of new technologies in the water treatment process of a modern waterworks

The new plant for the treatment of water from the Wahnbach-reservoir went into operation at Siegburg, Germany in 2001. It will have a capacity of 3,600 to 4,800 m3/h and is intended for drinking water supply of the Bonn region. The relatively simple water treatment process achieves its high performance and safety from the sophisticated process layout and control developed from 40 years of research and experience at the Wahnbach Reservoir Association. According to temporal needs permanganate and/or powdered activated carbon can be applied for pretreatment. Flocculation is either possible with Al3+- or Fe3+-salt solutions introduced by optimized flash-mixing and destabilization. Immediately afterwards at the inlet into the 12 aggregation and filtration trains it is possible to inactivate motile planktonic organisms by means of cavitation fields generated by ultrasound at 40 kHz. In the following aggregation step flocs are generated tailored to optimum retention in the double media filters which are regenerated via high speed build-up backwashing. Release of plankton and microorganisms accumulated in the filter bed by motile plankton is inhibited by the ultrasound treatment. A continuously high filtrate quality is achieved by stacked filter-runs of the 12 filters adapted to the water quality with backwashes graded at equal time intervals after identical filter-run times, a filter to waste period after backwash first filtrate separation and permanent turbidity monitoring at the individual filtrate outlets. Disinfection is achieved with 3 closed UV-systems equipped, performance tested and certified according to the DVGW technical standard W 294 and is followed by conventional. de-acidification with addition of lime water. The paper will describe and explain the process concept which has been worked out and validated by WTV within the framework of several research projects.