One of two huge pumps in close-coupled design built for the Gelsenkirchen pumping station. Image credit: KSB Aktiengesellschaft, Frankenthal

KSB Aktiengesellschaft, Germany, has supplied 21 pumps to water utility Emschergenossenschaft for use in the ongoing renaturation project along the Emscher Canal, which is currently Europe’s largest wastewater project. The equipment is to be deployed as main pumps in two new pumping stations.

These pumping stations in Bottrop and Gelsenkirchen lift wastewater from the eastern Emscher valley to sewer sections located at a higher level. Water then flows to wastewater treatment plants operated by Emschergenossenschaft. The canal collects the wastewater produced by more than 1.8 million people and effluent discharged by industrial plants and commercial businesses over a 51 km stretch.

The biggest pump sets each have a drive rating of 470 kW and handle up to 6480 m³ per hour. A special technical feature of the pumps is their casing design. Casings for these specially modified Sewatec pumps were designed with tangential discharge nozzles by KSB engineers for improved efficiency. The impellers were also optimized to ensure excellent efficiencies without compromising a high level of operating reliability.