Energy from Wastewater: Presentation of HUBER ThermWin System with Bavaria's Minister of Finance at the House of Bavarian History Regensburg

Bavaria's Minister of Finance and Home Affairs Albert Füracker visited the Museum of Bavarian History in Regensburg today, Friday, and inspected a plant for recovering energy from wastewater. The heart of the plant is the HUBER ThermWin System, consisting of a HUBER Pumping Stations Screen ROTAMAT® RoK4 and a HUBER Heat Exchanger RoWin. Besides Füracker, Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer (Mayor of the City of Regensburg), Dr. Richard Loibl (Director of the House of Bavarian History) and Georg Huber (CEO HUBER SE) were also on site to see the plant.

• Tour of the plant with Minister of State Albert Füracker, Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer (Mayor of Regensburg), Dr. Richard Loibl (Director of the House of Bavarian History) and Georg Huber (CEO HUBER SE)

• Minister of State Albert Füracker: ”HUBER ThermWin uses wastewater for heating and cooling and is a future-oriented showcase model in times of energy crisis and climate change.”

Füracker: ”forward-looking showcase model in times of energy crisis and climate change”.

Füracker was impressed by the innovative technology and emphasised the ever-increasing importance of sustainable solutions such as energy from wastewater: ”In Bavaria, tradition and innovation go hand in hand. This is impressively demonstrated in the House of Bavarian History. The HUBER SE ThermWin system installed in the state-of-the-art building does justice to this idea of progress: it uses wastewater for heating and cooling and is a future-oriented showcase model in times of energy crisis and climate change. It is impressive to see that what once seemed like a dream of the future is now technically feasible. I hope for many others to follow suit and be inspired by this example,” said Albert Füracker, Minister of Finance and Home Affairs, during the tour of the plant.

HUBER ThermWin for heating and cooling

The main component of the ThermWin process is the HUBER Heat Exchanger RoWin, which has been specially developed for use with wastewater and, in combination with a heat pump, allows heating and cooling of buildings. Depending on the season, the operating modes “heating” and “cooling” are used in the House of Bavarian History in Regensburg. In the “heating” operating mode, the heat pumps extract energy from the wastewater in the sewer with the help of the two size 8 wastewater heat exchangers. In the operating mode ”cooling”, the thermal energy of the building is supplied to the wastewater.

The innovative feature of the HUBER Heat Exchanger RoWin is its fully automatic self-cleaning. This feature makes it possible to ensure a permanently high and constant heat transfer performance even though the medium is wastewater.

Toronto: the world's largest project for recovering energy from wastewater

In addition to projects in Germany, the ThermWin process is also increasingly in demand abroad. Currently, the largest “energy from wastewater” project is being executed in Toronto/Canada. HUBER supplied 16 RoWin wastewater heat exchangers (size 8). In total, the machine technology for pre-screening and energy recovery from up to 550 l/s raw wastewater was supplied. This solution ensures the energy supply of the Toronto Western Hospital with up to 17.5 MW after the heat pumps. This is the largest project of its kind in the world.

Hospitals in Munich, Hamburg and Zurich also use HUBER ThermWin

Another project example from Bavaria is the integration of the HUBER Heat Exchanger RoWin into the university hospital Klinikum Rechts der Isar in Munich. Here, the wastewater from the central sterile supply department (CSSD) is relieved of part of its energy in a small-scale cycle. This energy is fed into the incoming drinking water, raising the temperature level from 10 °C to 30 to 40 °C. Previously, the process water was heated exclusively with electricity. Commissioning took place in 2014, and these solutions were subsequently also installed in the University Hospitals of Zurich and Hamburg-Eppendorf.