By Chris Taylor, MBA
Jan. 5, 2004 -- Fresh clean water is taken for granted - until the supply stops, and that's when the problems start; after wars, earthquakes, or other disasters, the restoration of a water supply is one of the highest priorities.
Across Austria, ITT Industries' Vogel continues to be intensely involved in all aspects of water supply. In Absdorf, it was a complete renewal of a well-fed system to a small village, resolved complete with remote monitoring: in Langenzerdorf, the challenge was the shift from a local supply to one pumped from Vienna, with critical parameters of flow and pressure: Tulln has a totally pumped system - no gravity feed increases the reliance on pumps: a similar situation exists in Brunn Gebirge, where a deep level tank also needs to be supplied by pump.
Fresh clean water is taken for granted - until the supply stops, and that's when the problems start; after wars, earthquakes, or other disasters, the restoration of a water supply is one of the highest priorities. Even without emergencies, the technology driving fresh water supplies is critical; equipment must be reliable beyond question, and flexible enough to cope with - in many areas - a rapidly growing demand.
Across Austria, Vogel continues to be intensely involved in all aspects of water supply; following are four recent application stories.
ABSDORF
Absdorf is a relatively small, but growing, market community where the water for domestic use comes from a well, and the villagers came to Vogel asking for help to work on a complete renewal of the facility - acknowledging they had no idea what they wanted or needed, just what they wanted to achieve.
"It was an interesting job and quite difficult," claims Erich Moormann, from ITT Fluid Technologies pump specialists in Austria, the company Vogel. "This was because we really received no formal brief. The village itself was our customer, and they had no specialists or experts; they just came to us and asked if we could solve their problem to upgrade and renew their water supply installation.
"There was an additional challenge, in that the village was growing, so demand for water was rising - but the well source meant that supplies were not unlimited. It was estimated that there may be 10 - 15 years supply available, but of course our pumps have a life beyond that time. We had to look at monitoring and control systems to make the best use of the water resource."
In the end, Vogel designed the entire system taking account of the likely anticipated peak demands, building in a reserve so pressure could even be maintained in emergency situations, for example when the local fire service were drawing water for firefighting purposes. Accepting the need for water for emergency use as well as for domestic service, the installation included a backup diesel generator set capable of powering the equipment in the event of electrical mains failure.
The solution was three VogelMPBH 65.2/6 SA211 - 1505 pumps fitted with the Hydrovar automatic flow control system. Each pump delivers up to nine litres per second at 5 bar pressure.
Part of the challenge for Vogel was to install a system that could be monitored, up to a point maintained, and adjusted remotely - remembering that the village itself had no immediate access to the skills required.
"We achieved this with our PumpWatcher and PumpLink products," recounts Moormann. "In this way we can use automatic mobile telephone networks to link into the Absdorf installation from our headquarters in Stockerau, review all the important operating data for the supply, monitor performance, undertake some maintenance and be made aware of the need for an engineer to visit when physical presence is required, even undertake some programming of the pumps' activity and the Hydrovar controls down the telephone line."
This comprehensive and seamless control, running 24 hours a day and seven days a week throughout the year, can produce reports on - for example - water demand and use for a specific period, or total use over time; water pressure recording; well water levels; and pump running times. Real time use can be compared with subsequent readings, and all data produced is archived for reference.
The remote facility also economises on the need for control premises in Absdorf itself.
LANGENZERDORF
The village of Langenzerdorf has until now relied on its own water supply, but the need for more water, and for better quality water, led to a supply being bought in and supplied from Vienna.
"This was an interesting case and not without its challenges," said Erich Moormann of Vogel, "as it required a complex and precise control system. The maximum possible flow from Vienna was 32 litres per second, but we had to keep the pressure above 2.5 bar. At the same time, the pressure on the supply side had to be kept to a constant 6.2 bar, regardless of the variable flow."
The solution was to hold a continually refreshed high level tank with a capacity of 10,000 cubic metres of water, refilled as required from Vienna, and fed by two Vogel MPBH 65.2/3 1104 pumps running between 7.5 and 11 kW. The supply from the tank to the village uses three pumps of the same type.
The critical flow and pressure parameters are monitored and automatically maintained through the installation of Hydrovar, an automatic flow control system supplied by a sister ITT company, which matches demand with supply continuously to ensure equal and constant pressure.
TULLN
Tulln is a city on the banks of the River Danube about 20km from Stockerau, the home town of Vogel in Austria. The area is very flat, and Tulln has no high level water tank, so the entire water needs for the city has to be pumped.
There was one water treatment plant south of the river, but with growing demand as the city expanded, it was decided to build a duplicate plant on the north bank.
"Vogel was the general supplier for this second plant," said Moormann. "Our project department was responsible for the all the equipment needed - including all pumps, pipes, ultra-violet filtration, valves, and so on. Another company was responsible for the water treatment side, and a third for the electrical work and control systems."
The new northern plant uses two Vogel MPV 125 pumps running at 45kW; two Vogel MPBH 100.1 pumps running at 22kW; two IC pumps for the water treatment side, running at 5.5kW; and four Vogel submersible 86TV pumps running at 30kW. All the Vogel pumps are driven by the automatic flow control Hydrovar system.
BRUNN GEBIRGE
Brunn is a city close to Vienna, where the water supply for the Gebirge district is pumped from a deep level tank. Vogel supplied the entire system - pipework, valves, controls and gauges, even the ultraviolet water disinfection unit as well as the pumping equipment.
Two pump packages were installed. Three low pressure, high capacity 80LMH 250USN754 pumps running at only two bar pressure keep the large deep tank topped up - gravity alone is not enough in this case - with a maximum flow of 260 cubic metres per hour with all three pumps running together.
Service to the town is provided by two 65LMH 200USN2202 pumps. These run at five bar pressure, and can meet a demand of 195 cubic metres per hour.
