Success story
Aquaflot – Pump Monitoring of a WWTP
- Design a new state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant based on an existing one.
- Collect a large amount of data on the current operation of the plant without interfering with its control system.
- Obtain this information quickly in order to develop an efficient and economical design that would ensure the continuity and improvement of the service.
- Collect detailed data without interrupting the operation of the existing plant and do it quickly and efficiently.
- The distance between the client and the design company, approximately 200 km, represented a logistical challenge for data transfer.
- Determine the necessary pumping capacity, as the information provided by the client only included average flow rates, which did not reflect daily variability.
- Significant savings in pumps: the data obtained revealed that two pumps would be sufficient for the efficient operation of the renovated pumping station, instead of the original three.
- Identification and solution of potential problems before the implementation of the new plant, thanks to the ability to monitor remotely and in real time, guaranteeing an optimized design and avoiding additional post-implementation costs.
- Improvement of operational efficiency and significant reduction of costs thanks to the proactive approach adopted.
A company from the Czech Republic commissioned Aquaflot Corporation to build a new state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant based on an existing one. In order to design this construction, it was necessary to collect a large amount of data on the current installation and its operating process.
As the plan had to be developed as quickly as possible, Aquaflot wanted to obtain the data as quickly as possible without interfering with the wastewater treatment plant’s control system. To do this, they chose to connect an Ewon Flexy gateway to the current station’s SIMATIC S7-300 PLC. Thus, they were able to collect and archive system data in the internal memory of the Ewon Flexy gateway.
Currently, the operator can connect to the gateway locally or remotely, select the monitored values, and even choose the time period to be displayed in the graph.
“We were able to consider the negative factor before implementation thanks to this solution.” Tomáš Šindelář, Manager, Aquaflot
Information such as the total daily volume of wastewater or pH values, minimum and maximum flow rates, water level in storage tanks, etc., became easily accessible through Ewon technology.
Cellular Connection
The client was located almost 200 km from the company working on the design; therefore, the service of a mobile phone operator was used to transfer data between the company and the Ewon Flexy gateway. To obtain the required information, the Ewon Flexy industrial gateway only needed to be installed in the distribution box for a few days; then it was returned to the company.
“Obtaining information on flow rates during the day was important. A large variability in the values could greatly affect the operation of the new wastewater treatment plant. The graphs show that this is exactly what happens every day in this treatment plant.”
Prevent Potential Problems
The great advantage is that the company was already able to consider this negative factor before the implementation of the new water treatment plant, which allowed for great cost savings compared to having the data after the start-up of the new facility. If they had depended exclusively on the data received from the client, which only indicated the average flow rate, this would have caused a major problem.
The second key factor that had to be monitored was the variability of the flow rate on different days. The pumping station was monitored for seven days to compare the situation on different days of the week. The data collected through the Ewon Flexy gateway helped determine that two pumps, instead of the original three, would be sufficient for the renovation.
The Ewon Flexy gateway is a very efficient tool for monitoring the operation of equipment, as well as for the collection and evaluation of data. The gateway allowed remote access to the Simatic S7-300 PLC equipment through the cellular network and gave the company the opportunity to choose the values that would be monitored and archived.
