Germ-free water using UF and UV
The town of Vohenstrauss can again use its Fahrenberg spring unrestrictedly, thanks to its investment in a fully automatic filtration and UV system. The town, located in the Upper Palatinate Danube Hills region of Southern Germany, installed a state of the art, fully automatic ultrafiltration system (UF system) and a UV system in the high-level tank under the Fahrenberg hill, which came into operation in 2004, both systems now reliably guaranteeing germ-free, clean drinking water.
"As we detected bacteriological contamination with coliform germs in the Fahrenberg spring water, it was completely disconnected from the water supply in 2009," explains Theo Schwägerl, the District Water Master, "and we had to buy our drinking water from the Steinwald Group."
The objective: Continued use of Fahrenberg spring water as drinking water in future - with minimal use of chemicals. The solution came from ProMaqua: Hygienically pure water by the use of ultrafiltration with subsequent UV radiation.
"In this process, the spring water is pressed through the filtration modules that have a maximum pore size of 0.02 micrometers.By comparison, the diameter of an average human hair is approximately 70 micrometers. The system therefore effectively filters particles, like turbidity, germs, parasites or viruses out of the water. "The smallest viruses measure 0.025 micrometers" explains Thomas Koppenhöfer from ProMaqua, thereby illustrating and guaranteeing the system's maximum safety. "The system delivers consistent filtrate quality, even with temporary clouding or microbiological contamination following precipitation - without turbidity and free from pathogens."
Project Engineer Thomas Koppenhöfer, Dipl. lng. (FH) and Software Developers Christian Keller and Thomas Paul from ProMaqua installed the system in the high-level tank.
Mr. Koppenhöffer stresses: "The system cleans between 4.5 and 9 cubic metres of water every hour and its intelligent control ensures that it operates fully automatically. The intervals and duration of backflushing can be adjusted according to the degree of contamination in the spring water. The downstream UVC system provides additional safety, as it reliably disinfects the water with ultraviolet radiation free from chemicals.“
Vohenstrauss can now unrestrictedly use the low-nitrate water from its Fahrenberg spring following commissioning of the fully automatic ultrafiltration and UV system. The new system will pay for itself in a few years, as no potable water has to be bought from the Steinwald Group and significantly fewer chemicals have to be used for water treatment.
