As a form of wastewater treatment, small wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are generally used when it is difficult to connect to the central sewer system. With this stand-alone design, monitoring technology and maintenance are significant cost factors for private users. Accordingly, there is usually no real-time monitoring, and maintenance is usually performed every six months. Thus, in the worst case, a possible malfunction can only be detected after half a year. With a wastewater volume of all wastewater treatment plants in Germany of approx. 150 million m³ per year, this results in an enormous hazard potential for the environment.
The partners of the joint project KKAOnline are developing an intelligent system for monitoring KKA and demonstrating sustainability, which will allow long-term reliable determination of cleaning performance and enable optimized maintenance - with rapid detection of malfunctions - to significantly reduce the risk of environmental pollution caused by malfunctions.
In cooperation with the innovative SME Batchpur GmbH and other partners, the Water&Energy and Measurement Technology&Power Electronics business units are pursuing the goal of significantly advancing plant monitoring and near-real-time control of small wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) by establishing a digital architecture based on "digital twins" (DT). The term "digital twin" refers to a step of iterative real-time simulation technology using current parameters and states of the plant.
