RAVENNA, Italy, May 17, 2013 -- The largest drinking water purification plant in Europe to feature GE's (NYSE: GE) ZeeWeed* 500 water treatment technology is under construction in Ravenna, Italy. Located on the east coast of Italy, close to the Adriatic Sea and part of the Mediterranean Sea, this popular tourist destination needed a way to ensure increased water supply as a result of repeated water shortages and high-quality drinking water for residents and visitors.
Several years ago, Romagna Acque – Società delle Fonti SpA, the public company in charge of the water wholesale supply for Italy's Romagna region, realized it needed to heavily invest in supplementing its existing water supply to ensure water always is available. The municipality selected GE's membrane technology for the project due to its ability to convert deteriorated raw source water into high-quality, safe drinking water.
Often plagued by long periods of drought that cause the reservoirs to reach critically low levels, the region turns to the Po River, the longest river in Italy, as a drinking water source. The raw water from the Po River has a high variation of solids and turbidity, especially after rain, and the new drinking water plant needed a reliable method to purify the severely deteriorated incoming water.
"Our region's economy depends on industrial assets and on seasonal tourists who come to Ravenna's coastal area for popular beaches and historical sites. Safe and reliable drinking water is essential to ensuring visitors continue to patronize the Romagna region," said Andrea Gambi, CEO, Romagna Acque – Società delle Fonti SpA. "We had been experiencing water shortages and needed to add to our reliable supply of water. Building a new drinking water plant with GE's ZeeWeed technology is the key to turning the river into a safe and dependable source of potable water."
Once operational, the new drinking water plant utilizing GE's ZeeWeed 500 technology will treat an average flow of 95 million liters per day (MLD), which is enough water to serve approximately 400,000 people. GE will provide the technology to the engineering, procurement and construction joint venture led by Torricelli S.r.l., in partnership with Degrémont SpA. Featuring 40 cassettes filled with ZeeWeed 500 modules and distributed in eight filtration trains, the new facility will be the largest potable plant of its kind in Europe using GE technology.
GE ZeeWeed 500 technology is a filtration technology that separates particles, bacteria and viruses from water or wastewater. Nearly 1,000 plants worldwide are using this technology. Its ability to handle high peaks of solids and turbidity, combined with the high-efficient process and low energy and chemicals usage, helps treat deteriorated or high variation raw water sources, as well as produce high and stable drinking quality water.
"In recent years, Italy's Romagna region has been afflicted with a limited and deteriorating water supply from conventional sources such as reservoirs and aquifers and was forced to turn to alternative water bodies, which can have severely deteriorated quality," said Yuvbir Singh, general manager, engineered systems -- water and process technologies for GE Power & Water. "More and more governments and municipalities are looking into new ways to safely and reliably generate potable water, regardless of how deteriorated the original water source."
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About GE Power & Water
GE Power & Water provides customers with a broad array of power generation, energy delivery and water process technologies to solve their challenges locally. Power & Water works in all areas of the energy industry including renewable resources such as wind and solar, biogas and alternative fuels; and coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy. The business also develops advanced technologies to help solve the world’s most complex challenges related to water availability and quality. Power & Water’s six business units include Distributed Power, Nuclear Energy, Power Generation Services, Renewable Energy, Thermal Products and Water & Process Technologies. Headquartered in Schenectady, N.Y., Power & Water is GE’s largest industrial business.
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