Drinking water quality optimisation system

The problems of water loss in the landscape have a significant impact on the scarcity of drinking water supplies in surface and groundwater sources. Drinking water operators often call for a reduction in consumption by end users. Lower abstractions from the water supply network can result in a deterioration in water quality. This is not just a fiction, but a reality that the Czech Republic is experiencing more and more frequently. In the future, we can expect much more frequent manifestations related to the quality of drinking water. Scientists from the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering have joined forces and created measures to prevent the deterioration of drinking water quality.

Description of the technology

The quality of the drinking water supplied is also affected by the age of the water supply network, its overall condition, layout, quality of laying and overall design of the water pipes, etc. Water that is retained in the pipes for longer periods of time due to lower abstractions causes the formation of undesirable bacteria, micro-organisms or growths and deposits in the pipes themselves. The only way to get rid of these undesirable phenomena is to flush the water network regularly. This method is well known, but it is accompanied by the need to shut down the water pipes. At the same time, it also requires a significant consumption of water from the reservoir. It is therefore desirable to optimise this operation and reduce its time and the amount of water required to a minimum. This optimisation depends both on the level of specific sanitary pollution in the selected network, i.e. the quality of water in selected sections of the network, and on the hydraulic parameters of the network (pressures and velocities), as well as on the nature of the consumption site.

An invented system for optimizing the quality of drinking water in pipes can contribute to the ideal optimization. By using and adjusting a specially developed system with drain valves, cleaning costs can be significantly reduced and water network downtime can be avoided in those parts of the water network that are at risk of stagnation. The essence of the invention is that sensors are placed on the water supply network with online transmission to a control and optimization unit. The sensors record the quality and hydraulic characteristics of the network and transmit this information to the control unit, which, based on specially designed software with an optimization and simulation model, evaluates how much water needs to be dropped and where in the network to achieve the desired water quality in the network. This information will go to specially designed valves that will be placed at risk points in the network and, based on the evaluation of the simulations in the control unit, will only release the required amount of water at a certain point in time. The required water quality in the network will thus be achieved as efficiently as possible.

The system includes both the optimisation solution itself and the procedure for setting it up and installing it on the water network.