New Ways in Wastewater Treatment

The Felsalbe wastewater treatment plant in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz was designed for 30,000 inhabitants. It is run by the wastewater disposal company of the City of Pirmasens. The plant with its primary clarification, activation basin and digestion tank can be described as a classical treatment plant and corresponds to the “general stateof- the-art-technology“ (fig. 1). So far, everything would be in best order – the problem is that the City of Pirmasens intends to connect an additional 8,000 inhabitants. The target is to optimise the process and energy management of the existing wastewater treatment plant so the increased load can be processed without the need of constructional alterations. An ambitious plan, but how to realise?