Safe industrial wastewater disposal

The Austrian industrial company AGRANA, with a site in Aschach on the Danube, planned a wastewater pipeline that runs through a water protection zone. As it had to be permanently monitorable and pressure-tight, egeSmart:Leak Control 3L was used.

At the Aschach industrial site, AGRANA refines the natural raw material corn into high-quality starch-based products. For a new disposal pipeline in a drinking water protection zone, a fully monitorable pipe system with permeation protection was selected in consultation with the Upper Austrian provincial government—pressure-tight and with an outside diameter of OD 630 mm.

Over a length of 170 m, egeSmart:Leak Control 3L with electronic leak monitoring was installed. This system enables permanent monitoring of the pipeline section in the drinking water protection zone. For this purpose, the electrically conductive intermediate aluminium layer is continuously supplied with low voltage. The resistance monitoring of the integrated aluminium layer is then carried out by a grounded monitoring unit. An alarm is triggered even in the event of minor damage. The signal can also be transmitted via GSM and used to shut down the pipeline. The system also enables precise pinpointing of the damage location.

The entire civil engineering work was carried out by the construction company Weber Bau GmbH from Rohrbach, Austria. In the drinking water protection zone, both the excavation work and the handling of heavy welding equipment were carried out with particular care. The pipe ends of the 12 m lengths were butt-welded. After each weld, conductivity was checked. After completion of the entire pipeline section, the function was checked from start to finish using a control cable and connected to the monitoring system.