Bickenbach Wastewater Treatment Plant: HUBER supplies technologies for Hesse’s first plant for elimination of trace substances

The Bickenbach Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) will be the first WWTP in Hesse (Germany) to receive advanced wastewater treatment for the removal of trace substances. At the end of 2022, the wastewater treatment plant of size class 4 (35,000 population equivalents) will be extended by an ozonation system with a downstream four-line activated carbon filter stage and an upstream two-line cloth filtration as pretreatment. Among others, HUBER will supply two HUBER Disc Filter RotaFilt® units and 16 HUBER Active Carbon Filter CONTIFLOW GAK® units, commissioning is scheduled for the end of 2023.

HUBER received lots for prefiltration and activated carbon filtration

The overall project was put out to public tender in three lots. HUBER bid directly for the prefiltration and activated carbon filtration lots and received both contracts from the Bickenbach/Seeheim-Jugenheim Wastewater Association in November 2021 and January 2022. The two order lots include the following scope of delivery:

Prefiltration

• 2 HUBER Disc Filter RotaFilt® 8 units
• Complete switchgear and control system, inlet/outlet gate valves, pumps and piping
• Delivery, installation and commissioning

Activated carbon filtration

• 16 HUBER Active Carbon Filter CONTIFLOW® 50 GAK units
• Switchgear and control system, compressed air supply and control, piping, granulated activated carbon
• Delivery, installation and commissioning

In future, the effluent of the secondary clarifiers will be pretreated in full-flow operation at up to 300 liters per second by two HUBER Disc Filter RotaFilt® units, thus removing floating solids and impurities. This is followed by the elimination of trace substances in partial flow operation at up to 150 liters per second. This is done by oxidation in the ozone loop reactor followed by biological post-filtration and adsorption of trace substances in the 16 HUBER Active Carbon Filter CONTIFLOW® GAK units.

Sensitive groundwater reservoir “Hessisches Ried”: HUBER solutions for advanced wastewater treatment reliably eliminate micropollutants

“By constructing the plant for the removal of trace substances, the Bickenbach WWTP is making an important contribution to the protection of the ‘Hessisches Ried’," says Jörg Stanzel, Managing Director of the Bickenbach/Seeheim-Jugenheim Wastewater Association. “The ‘Ried’ is the largest groundwater reservoir in Hesse and provides drinking water for around two million people in the Rhine-Main region. The largest proportion of hazardous and persistent micropollutants such as pharmaceutical residues, hormones, biocides and household chemicals will be reliably retained in the future,” explains Stanzel.