Innovative water purification technologies. Market news for water supply and heating systems New technologies for water supply and sanitation

Did you know that every tenth inhabitant of the planet does not receive regular drinking water in sufficient quantities? To solve this most pressing problem for humanity, the best engineers around the globe have developed a wide range of devices, large and small, that produce clean water. Every year, many innovations appear that simplify and reduce the cost of these processes, and the equipment becomes more compact and cheaper. Today, at least 663 million people worldwide suffer from a lack of drinking water, and solving this problem is becoming more urgent every year.

To obtain fresh water they are used different technologies- from condensation of water from rarefied air and desalination of salt water sea ​​water to water chips with ultraviolet purification that can be used at home. Of course, not all of the existing technologies have made it beyond the laboratory, but those that have been introduced have already made it possible to obtain billions of liters of clean water.

Warka Water drinking water collection tower

It took the developers several years to create the Warka Water tower, and last year the first pilot plant, capable of obtaining clean water directly from the air, finally began operating in an Ethiopian village. The unique award-winning project is based on the concept of collecting water from fog.

The structure is a huge cylinder of woven bamboo rods, inside which a mesh is stretched. The tower is bordered by a canopy, allowing local residents relax in the shade while the condensate is poured into a container from under the base of the tower. The creators of the tower plan to begin mass production by 2019.

Tiny UV Water Purifier

Not all people suffering from a lack of clean water live in dry regions. Sometimes “there is water all around, but you can’t drink a drop or a sip” due to pollution environment or others environmental problems. Existing purification systems are usually expensive and inefficient. Researchers at Stanford University and SLAC National Laboratory recently developed a UV water purifier housed in a tiny rectangular housing that shortens the water purification process from 48 hours to 20 minutes. Although the device is still a long way from mass production, lab testing of the prototype gives hope that the chip could be the first step towards a new generation of purification methods that can help turn dirty water into drinkable water.

Floating solar water desalination plant Pipe

A new desalination project developed for California, called Pipe, made a splash last summer by providing 5.7 billion liters of clean drinking water to the drought-stricken state. The platform, which receives energy from solar panels, operates on the principle of the electromagnetic desalination method. Filtration and thermal baths are used to turn seawater into drinking water, and the resulting byproduct is then released back into the ocean. Externally, Pipe looks more like a giant sparkling sculpture, a work of art, rather than an industrial installation. It pleases the eye and warms the soul with the knowledge of what a big problem is being solved with its help.

World's largest fog collection plant

The largest fog harvester is a giant mesh fence that captures the thick fog in the Moroccan desert and turns it into clean, fresh water. The ingenious device, which covers an area of ​​about 600 square meters, makes great use of natural conditions the arid region of Aït Baâmrane, where fog, more like a thick blanket, covers everything around six months of the year. The installation produces 77 liters of drinking water per day per square meter of grid. Using a pumping system solar powered and pipes, clean drinking water is being provided to more than 400 local residents, for whom obtaining water was previously an incredibly difficult problem.

Water nano chip

The main obstacle to the introduction of water treatment technologies for domestic needs of the population in arid areas has always been their high cost. Researchers, engineers, and designers have literally run off their feet trying to solve this problem. An unexpected and very original solution was proposed by scientists from the University of Texas at Austin and German scientists from the University of Marburg. They invented a “water chip” that creates a weak electric field, which, however, is enough to desalinate a small amount of water. Judging even from the results of the first experiments, this chip, powered by ordinary batteries, could become a solution for consumers. To further test and promote the development of the technology of this very promising and portable method, the startup Okeanos Technology was specially created.

Carnegie Perth Wave Energy

The Carnegie Perth Wave Energy project decided to kill two birds with one stone by combining the method of generating electricity from underwater currents with the method reverse osmosis for desalination of sea water. A floating buoy-type installation operates off the coast of Perth in Western Australia, where environmental issues are particularly important. clean methods electricity production. Three submersible 240-kilowatt buoys are anchored to the seabed by heavy hydraulic pumps that push water through powerful turbines as the entire system bobs in the ocean depths. The integrated desalination system uses a portion of the electricity produced to create clean drinking water, and the rest of the electricity is fed back to shore directly into the grid. This small local project is part of a larger close-up use this desalination technology as an inexhaustible and safe source of clean drinking water for local residents.

The housing and communal services sector, with its kilometers of worn-out networks and gigantic volumes of consumed resources, today is an idle testing ground suitable for testing the latest energy-saving technologies and modern materials. Only during transportation to the consumer up to 27% of water and at least 15% of heat are lost.

However, so far innovations in housing and communal services are limited to local projects, the replication of which is hampered by the industry’s long-standing sluggishness.

Know-how for a building manager

When talking about innovations in the housing and communal services sector, they most often mean devices and materials that reduce resource consumption. Without operating with accurate data it is impossible. To measure water consumption, management companies began installing flow meters with built-in temperature and pressure sensors. These figures allow us to estimate, incl. quality pipes made from new materials that do not allow leaks.

As the level of energy efficiency of the serviced areas increases, the range of solutions is even greater:

• Use of long-lasting lamps;
• Conversion of boiler houses to gas;
• Installation of condensing boilers;
• Use of infrared heating films;
• Introduction of thermal insulation materials;
• Application of solar collectors.

And the transition to drinking water purification using new filters and biotechnologies can significantly improve the reputation of housing and communal services enterprises in the eyes of consumers. Domestic inventors have a particularly large number of similar developments, but their widespread implementation is most often postponed.

What about them?

In the far abroad, where enterprises serving the public utility sector are organized fundamentally differently than in the post-Soviet space, they have long learned to increase their efficiency by economically stimulating innovation in housing and communal services. The introduction of new technologies is encouraged preferential lending and taxation.

Foreign states insure loans aimed at the purchase of innovative solutions in housing and communal services, accelerate the depreciation of fixed assets, and the companies themselves strive to take advantage of the advantages of the territories of their location

USA: wipers are being replaced by robots

In the USA the sphere utilities is entirely under the jurisdiction of the states, whose geographical, natural and infrastructural conditions differ greatly. Therefore, for example, in Florida, which is practically not covered by gasification, they strive to save electricity in every possible way, and in some southern states there are no heating systems at all.

Managers of management companies in the USA are professionals in their field. Their task is to coordinate the work of individual contractors, since different companies are involved in repairing metering devices or replacing pumps. In an effort to save money, American utilities are abandoning the use of cheap labor in favor of robots. Robotic snow blowers, which can be seen on the streets of American cities, work autonomously, without human intervention, performing assigned tasks.

"Toyama Tokanawa": Housing and communal services in Japanese

The Land of the Rising Sun is one of the first that comes to mind when it comes to introducing inventions into everyday life. is a necessity caused by fierce competition in all markets, and the housing and communal services industry is no exception. Whoever is more efficient makes a profit.

Tens of thousands of small entrepreneurs are engaged in servicing Japan's utility sector, without the usual “natural monopolies.” Management company can choose the right contractor from a long list for any type of work, be it replacing water pipes or checking the performance of the heating system. The best prepared win, and all sorts of innovations play an important role here.

In Helsinki, whose climate is very similar to Russia's, city authorities can afford to heat the streets in winter. Two streets in the capital of Finland are supplied with waste heat from residential buildings. Such energy efficiency with surpluses would be impossible without clear rules for the housing and communal services sector, which encourage the implementation technical progress.

The use of innovative methods allows Finns to heat their houses with coal, gas and hydroelectricity at minimal costs, switching to reserve reserves of oil in thirty-degree frosts. Consumers pay for the use of alternative energy sources, and each citizen has the right to choose the organization that provides housing and communal services. Officials ensure equality of opportunity for all market participants.

Features of innovations in housing and communal services in Russia

Many people strongly associate the housing and communal services sector in Russia with the “scoop”, but not with the latest technologies. The main reason is lack of money. The funds received into the accounts of management companies within the framework of the existing tariff setting model are, as a rule, not enough to carry out major modernization and replace the infrastructure with a more technologically advanced one.

At many enterprises in the industry, even accounting in the old fashioned way is carried out manually using calculators, which does not correspond to the complexity of the residential complexes being serviced. By refusing to innovate, company leaders cut off the opportunity to reduce costs. For example, laying pipes with an anti-corrosion coating can reduce the number of accidents, and therefore save money on their elimination.

Legislative pit

Over the past decade, Russian experts have noted the inferiority of existing rules functioning of housing and communal services, which do not provide for serious mechanisms for competition between municipal and private enterprises.

Reform of the industry is progressing at a slow pace, and enterprises are not adding more money to replace outdated equipment. Changing the laws governing the conclusion of service contracts for housing maintenance could stimulate the introduction of resource-saving technologies. Without fixing payments, management companies, as noted, sometimes do not have sufficient funds for current activities, not to mention the introduction of innovations.

Examples of innovations in Russian housing and communal services

Nowadays you won’t surprise anyone with intercoms that protect common property from antisocial individuals, or “smart” light bulbs in entrances that turn on from the sound of footsteps. However, residents of depressed municipalities can sometimes only dream of such “innovations.”

Meanwhile, one of the most progressive phenomena in the housing and communal services sector in recent years has been the development of the State information system housing and communal services. GIS housing and communal services contains regulations, a register of licenses of management companies and other enterprises in the industry, as well as residential properties, and if necessary, owners can quickly familiarize themselves with this information, incl. about the results of inspections.

In St. Petersburg, specialists from the Smart City project office promise to introduce a blockchain-based system that will not allow management companies to overcharge citizens by manually changing meter readings. The development of this system is currently underway.

There are also more exotic projects. Yes, in Kamchatka utilities supply residents with natural heat from volcanoes, which is a rare example of alternative energy. Due to the presence of thermal water deposits in several populated areas in the north of the peninsula there is no need to use other heat sources.

Vodokanal of St. Petersburg presented two new projects today: new block preparation of drinking water at the Southern Waterworks and an innovative system for managing the city's water supply (block K-17) reports the official portal of the Administration of St. Petersburg. The ceremony was attended by Governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko, Director of the State Unitary Enterprise "Vodokanal of St. Petersburg" Felix Karmazinov and Deputy Minister regional development Anatoly Popov. Valentna Matvienko reported that in 2006 the government of St. Petersburg decided to modernize the Southern Waterworks, one of the largest in the city. It supplies up to 900 thousand cubic meters of water per day to consumers in the Nevsky, Moskovsky, Frunzensky, Kirov and Krasnoselsky districts. Construction of the new block began in 2007. Developers technological solution became Israeli company"Tahal." 3 billion 100 million rubles were allocated from the city budget for the construction of this complex. “This is the most modern unit in Russia, which has no analogues. It includes a whole complex of treatment facilities. The multilayer purification system allows us to achieve the highest quality of water that meets all international and Russian standards,” the governor said. The capacity of the new block is 350 thousand cubic meters of water per day, which is almost 20% of the water supplied daily in the city. The unit is also unique in that it allows you to solve the problem of wash water, which is used to regularly clean the filters. Previously, this water was discharged directly into the Neva. It is being cleaned in the new block. And thanks to the transition to a closed cycle of using wash water, the negative impact on the environment is significantly reduced. By now everything construction work completed, the unit was put into commissioning. Water supply to consumers will begin at the end of 2010. Presenting the project of the K-17 quarter to journalists, Felix Karmazinov noted that a similar idea has not been implemented anywhere in the world except St. Petersburg. The project has been operating in the Krasnoselsky district on the basis of the Uritskaya pumping station since 2008. An innovative water supply management system has been created here, which allows real-time monitoring of the passage of water to each consumer. The implementation of the project made it possible to optimize the operation of pumping stations, monitor their condition remotely, and eliminate excess pressure. Important results included such indicators as a reduction in average monthly energy consumption by more than 42%, a reduction in unproductive water losses by 39%, and a reduction in the number of damage to networks by 32%. The innovative system guarantees St. Petersburg residents the absence of unplanned emergency shutdowns and the opportunity to save on water bills. Valentina Matvienko reported that by mid-2011, 40% of consumers will be connected to the new innovative control system. Until the end of 2012 this will enter the system the whole city. “Today St. Petersburg is leading Russia forward,” said Deputy Minister of Regional Development Anatoly Popov. He emphasized that the commissioning of a new unit at the Southern Waterworks is a positive step in the development of not only St. Petersburg, but throughout Russia. “Using the example of St. Petersburg, we see how the course of the country’s leadership towards modernization, energy saving and energy efficiency really gives positive results. When the rest of Russia is just thinking about implementing any projects, St. Petersburg puts it into practice,” said the Deputy Minister. Valentina Matvienko thanked labor collective State Unitary Enterprise "Vodokanal of St. Petersburg", designers, everyone who participated in the construction of the new unit and implementation innovation system water supply management of St. Petersburg.

The beginning of the 21st century for the Moscow water supply system was marked by the introduction of the most advanced technologies, applied in the global water sector. At water treatment stations, the classical two-stage technology of sedimentation and filtration began to be supplemented with ozonation methods in combination with sorption on activated carbons.

Experience in the industrial operation of ozone sorption - ozonation followed by sorption purification on filters with granular activated carbon - has shown a significant increase in the efficiency of water purification for organic contaminants, a decrease in the concentration of organochlorines, residual aluminum and odors in drinking water.

The development of the modernization of technologies in the field of natural water purification was the commissioning in December 2006 of technological structures, which for the first time in the history of Russian centralized water supply systems included the stage of membrane ultrafiltration. The use of the latest technologies in the centralized water supply system makes it possible to maintain the quality of drinking water that meets the standards not only of Russia, but of the most developed countries of the world, even in conditions of emergency salvo pollution of water supply sources.

In the global practice of drinking water supply, in recent years, membrane technologies have begun to occupy a leading position due to their universal ability to increase the efficiency of treatment for many groups of contaminants, including indicators of epidemic water safety. Interest in membrane technologies is also associated with ensuring maximum compactness and automation with a minimum of chemical reagents introduced into water and guaranteeing high reliability of the functioning of structures.

Along with the introduction of new methods of water purification, water disinfection processes are constantly being improved. In order to increase the reliability and safety of drinking water production by eliminating the hazardous substance liquid chlorine from circulation, in 2012, at all water treatment stations, the conversion of the water disinfection system to a new reagent, sodium hypochlorite, was completed. In connection with the tightening of state standards for the content of chloroform in drinking water, targeted work was carried out to optimize disinfection regimes, as a result of which the concentration of chloroform in Moscow tap water decreased to 4 - 22 μg/l, with a standard of 60 μg/l, which corresponds to the level of developed countries peace.

In dense urban areas and traffic congestion, it is economically feasible to use trenchless repair and restoration methods. Today in Moscow the most modern methods, including: applying a cement-sand coating to the inner surface of the pipeline, drawing continuous polymer hoses, polyethylene pipes into the existing pipeline, and mastered the “pipe-in-pipe” method of repairing large-diameter pipelines. This makes it possible to return inoperable communications to active operation, increase their service life by at least 50 years, increase throughput, and for water supply networks, which is especially important, to maintain high quality transported water, reduce the number of accidents, minimize unproductive water losses.

Mosvodokanal is one of the main enterprises of the city that has a positive impact on improving the environment. The Moscow sewer system is a reliable environmental shield of the capital, ensuring the sanitary and environmental well-being of the metropolis. In accordance with the implementation of programs adopted by the Moscow Government for the development of the water supply and sewerage system for the period until 2020, a radical reconstruction of the sewerage system is being carried out.

In conditions of water conservation and annual reduction in water consumption and wastewater disposal priority areas developments are improving the quality of water treatment and increasing the reliability of networks and structures.

The main objectives of the development of the water supply and sewerage sector of any city are:

• accelerated modernization of network facilities - both in water supply and sewerage.
• improving the quality of drinking water preparation and waste water treatment,
• increasing the reliability and efficiency of the city's water supply and sewerage systems.

The principle of operation is to carry out restoration work When an accident occurs, the so-called “fire brigade” tactics are currently futile. Accelerated modernization of network facilities using advanced methods and innovative technologies- the main measure to prevent emergency situations.

Reconstruction of city network facilities in cramped urban conditions poses a serious problem. The optimal solution was to use trenchless technologies, for which about 80% of the total volume of network reconstruction is currently being carried out.

With regard to sewerage, in recent years, in addition to the technologies for reconstructing small and medium-diameter pipelines mastered in the 90s, the most modern methods for restoring sewer collectors and large-diameter canals have been adopted. The technology for restoring channels of complex shape using composite modules has been mastered.

Thanks to the use of modern materials and technologies in the restoration and replacement of dilapidated gravity networks and pressure sewer pipelines, in recent years it has been possible to prevent the occurrence of major accidents on sewer networks And pumping stations, and the trend of accidents is steadily decreasing from year to year.

In accordance with stricter requirements for cleaning quality waste water At Moscow wastewater treatment plants, specialists from Mosvodokanal JSC constantly carry out activities to search, develop and implement modern best available technologies.

Removal of nutrients

Ultraviolet disinfection of wastewater

The main directions of development of the capital's sewage treatment plants are their reconstruction with the transition to modern technologies removal of nitrogen and phosphorus and systems implementation ultraviolet disinfection. The combination of these two technologies makes it possible today to return water to nature that fully complies with domestic sanitary and hygienic requirements and European standards.

Another important area for the development of treatment facilities today is obtaining electricity from alternative sources. A similar source at wastewater treatment plants is the biogas generated during the digestion of sewage sludge. The conversion of biogas with the generation of electricity and heat occurs at mini-thermal power plants. Facilities of this kind, powered by biofuel, make it possible to increase the reliability of energy supply to treatment facilities, which is the key to preventing the discharge of untreated wastewater into water intakes during periods of shutdown external sources electricity.