October 2020

WATER INDUSTRY n Digital twins help to develop new concepts for water use U rbanisation and climate change represent major challenges for water supply and waste water disposal operations. On the one hand, expanding cities mean that more people are living in less space, while on the other hand, dry periods and heavy rainfall events are becoming increasingly common. This presents challenges for waste water systems in particular. The City of Berlin – in cooperation with various institutes, universities, authorities and companies – is investing both in new systems and in upgrades to existing infrastructures. Using modern technologies, the aim is to operate existing plants more flexibly and efficiently than before. A key component in this initiative is developing digital twins of the plants. The concepts developed can be transferred rapidly to actual plants and the digital twins can bring the complex topic of digitalisation to life in a simple way – particularly for employees on site and in service roles. “If I can better manage heavy rainfall events through the intelligent networking of existing retention basins, then I may not even need to build new plants – and this is what makes digitalisation and intelligent automation in the water industry so interesting from an economic perspective,”explains Professor Paul Uwe Thamsen, head of the Fluid System Dynamics department at the Technical University of Berlin. To research the opportunities offered by digital twins and digitalisation, Thamsen and his team are using a test facility consisting of a pumping station equipped with high-tech automation and digitalisation equipment. This includes systems for the acquisition and digitalisation of assets, process instrumentation, motor and pump management, a Siemens Simatic PCS 7 process control system, and systems such as Comos for engineering and the simulation of plant conditions. By integrating intelligent tools into the pump test rig, Thamsen and his colleagues have been able to implement innovative concepts.“We can demonstrate directly in our plant how the solutions are integrated into a real plant environment, and show the results live in the demonstrator. This helps us to bring innovations to market faster,”he explains.“With our digital twin, we can now bring the really complex topic of digitalisation to life in a simple way – particularly for employees on site or in support service roles. In my view, this is a real milestone towardsWater 4.0. “Using the basic equipment in our demonstrator, we can show customers and other interested parties our work in a real environment,”Thamsen concludes. “This offers great potential, particularly in terms of new solutions and developments.” n German researchers are harnessing digital twin technologies to develop new strategies for improving efficiency in the water and waste water industry. The pump test rig in Berlin is being used with digital twin technologies to develop new strategies for boosting efficiency in the water industry