"Our aim is to be the best value long-distance water supply company in Germany, offering the best quality drinking water while ensuring a reliable supply and the sustainable use of resources.” That is the guiding principle of the Landeswasserversorgung Baden-Württemberg.
Founded in 1912, the joint body provides 90 million cubic meters of drinking water every year to around 250 towns, cities and communities in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. Some 3 million residents are supplied through a 775 km long pipeline network, from the two water works in Langenau and Dischingen.
Danube water, provided efficiently and sustainably
The Langenau plant is one of the largest and most state-of-the-art water treatment plants in Europe. It went into operation in 1973 on the "Sptzigen Berg" on the edge of the Donauried, a river landscape around the Danube in western Bavaria between Neu-Ulm and Donauwörth. It was extended in 2014 and got a new ground water filtration system, with pneumatic automation technology from Festo.
The water, which is taken from the River Danube at Leipheim, is converted to drinking water through a multi-level process. Following three preliminary purification steps, a multi-media filtration system removes any remaining suspended particles. The subsequent activated carbon filtration eliminates organic contaminants, even in the smallest concentrations. The automation technology from Festo controls the water flow using energy-efficient pneumatically operated process valves, for shut-off and for preventing backflow.
You can read on to find out exactly what the water supply company was seeking to achieve, through the modernization of the Langenau plant. Or you can skip directly to the pneumatic solution from Festo.
We are proud that the water supply company, based in Baden-Württemberg, modernized its water technology with Festo. The example proves how convincing the advantages of pneumatic automation are.
During the tendering phase, we were frequently on site and were able to stand our ground against the electrical solution with the pneumatics concept, both in a technical comparison and a cost comparison. And at the end of the day, the result was that the water supply company made the switch from the previously deployed electric actuators to a complete pneumatics system.
A plus point for Festo was the thorough consulting: Our experts helped with the calculation of the compressed air consumption and the optimum layout of the compressed air network. If required, we can also provide support during the tendering phase.
The bottom line is that automation with Festo is as simple and fault-free as pneumatics itself. With us, plant builders always get everything from a single source, with a single part number. This makes the order handling process simple and accelerates the implementation of the project.