Water 4.0

Water 4.0 is no longer science fiction, but an established reality. It stands for wastewater treatment with real-time station monitoring, predictive maintenance and demand-driven system optimisation. These benefits in turn bring greater efficiency, lower costs and significantly easier handling. The utility company in Bietigheim-Bissingen (D) is a great example of how this works in practice.
Bietigheim-Bissingen is a large district town in Baden-Württemberg. The wastewater treatment plant is designed to serve around 140,000 inhabitants, has several settling tanks and distributes the air required for biological wastewater treatment to the tanks via control valves. Originally, three turbo blowers were installed. However, the operator was looking for a solution that would increase the efficiency of the plant, not only by using new aerators, but also a smarter aeration control system and easier-to-operate compressed air equipment. The previous subsystems had to be made more intelligent and communicative in order to provide predictive compressed air supply based on collected data. Strictly speaking, the concept of using intelligent data within the framework of Industry 4.0 and Water 4.0 is not new. Implementation of digital technology in machines has been standard practice for some time and machine control systems equipped with sensors form the basis for the intentions behind Water 4.0. However, it is the latest generation of much more powerful communication networks, databases and computers - together with the development of smart controllers - that have finally made the full realization of the concept possible.