Festo brings decades of experience in automation technology to water processing, with complete automation solutions being customised to the individual requirements of plant operators. Control technology is combined with pneumatic drives for process valves. This results in a consistent automation concept from process control to programmable logic control to field level.
Water is precious
Water is a precious commodity and the careful handling of this resource is extremely important. Automated potable water purification and wastewater treatment help to ensure a high level of supply and process safety. For these requirements in particular, pneumatics represents a cost-effective and reliable alternative to electrical automation systems.
In its extensive water technology product range, Festo offers a complete package of automation solutions from process valves through to the coordinating level. This includes pneumatic drives for hand lever valves; butterfly valves and ball valves; local controllers; control cabinets with valve terminals; integrated controllers; and fieldbus.
Why use pneumatics in water technology?
Brian Abbott, pneumatic product manager at Festo, explains, “Compared with electrical installations, pneumatic automation technology reduces investment, installation and operating costs – by over 50% in some cases. Pneumatic drives require no maintenance for their entire lifespan. As process valves are operated irregularly in water technology, deposits or caking can form, which lead to much higher breakaway torques. The overload protection of the pneumatics is a crucial feature here. If the drive comes to a stop, the pressure on the pressure regulator can simply be increased to enable more force to be applied, which eliminates the need for costly maintenance. Another advantage is that compressed air can be obtained in the event of an electrical power failure.”
At the core of pneumatic systems in water technology is the valve terminal. Situated near the process valves, it is ideal for rapid and simple automation solutions in which process valves, pneumatics and electronics interact optimally. The modular valve terminals can be expanded, depending on the number of process valves. With the fieldbus, this system solution has just a single, clearly defined and standardised interface between the controller (PLC) and the valve terminal. The advantage of the system concept is that extensions or changes can be made at the control level without replacing the hardware. In addition, all components of the machine technology are compatible.
Festo pneumatics are used worldwide in waterworks and water purification plants, as case studies in Turkey, Greece and South Africa show. In Istanbul, Festo assisted the water supply company ISKI to provide more than 2 million cubic metres of processed river and rain water a day to 14 million inhabitants. In Greece, at the Psyttalia wastewater treatment plant off the coast of Athens, sewage is pumped through 1,5 km of pipeline from the mainland to the rocky island of Psyttalia. The technical data for this project underline the gigantic scale of the plant. The biological purification process has 12 fermentation tanks with a total volume of almost 300 000 cubic metres and a flow rate of 1 million cubic metres a day.
A local solution
Locally Festo supplied the Meulwater Water Treatment Plant located in the Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve in the Western Cape. This newly constructed purification plant is capable of treating 8 Ml of potable water a day. Working closely with the project engineers, Festo is proud to have had the opportunity to supply and install state-of-the-art pneumatic equipment to automate the plant filtration and backwash recovery systems.
“We aim to provide a complete solution to our customers, with a system designed for their individual requirements that improves their productivity,” concludes Abbott.
For more information contact Tracey Swart, Festo, 0860 033 786, [email protected], www.festo.com/bionic
| Tel: | 08600 FESTO (33786) |
| Fax: | +27 11 974 2157 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.festo.co.za |
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