First HUBER TT7-30 pressure doors installed at Echthausen waterworks

Wickede-Echthausen waterworks in the Ruhr Valley was built in 1942. About 35 hectares are available there for drinking water production. The waterworks belong to Wasserwerke Westfalen (WWW), a subsidiary of DEW21 and GELSENWASSER which produce drinking water for 1.5 million people with their about 138 employees. Six waterworks between Wickede and Witten treat the water of the river Ruhr and make it available as drinking water. The supply area includes parts of the southern Münsterland region, the central and eastern parts of the Ruhr Valley and the northern Sauerland area. In 2014, Wasserwerke Westfalen produced about 100 million cubic metres of drinking water.

About 25 million cubic metres of it are the per year capacity of the Echthausen waterworks where an additional building (80 x 35 m) is under construction presently to complete the drinking water treatment plant and provide for additional technical water treatment steps (fig. 1). This plant consists of oxidation with ozone to break up persistent compounds, quick filtration for the removal of particles, and an activated carbon fixed-bed filtration for the removal of organics. Moreover, the existing chemical deacidification system with caustic soda is being replaced by a physical process that works without any addition of chemicals. In advance of the overall project, Wasserwerke Westfalen started already in 2010 to change the drinking water disinfection systems on their waterworks to systems that use UV light. This technology is even more efficient against potential pathogenic germs than the previously used chloroxide.

HUBER is involved in the project as supplier of a TT7.30 pressure door, a new model of our common pressure doors. This new type of door extends our product range and can be used for applications with up to 30 m water columns, whereas our previously manufactured pressure doors withstand water columns of 'only' 10 metres.

We supplied three of these pressure doors for this project, they were needed as inspection openings for the ozone reaction chambers. The water volumes flow through the plant with overpressure. The three pressure doors must be able to withstand that pressure. Easy access is ensured by the easy-to-operate central lock.

Start-up of the water treatment plant is planned to take place at the beginning of 2016. We confidently look forward to the completion of the project and are sure our TT7.30 pressure doors will be doing their job excellently and reliably.