From canal to tap
Digi-Flow handles the entire Electrical & Instrumentation (E&I) of innovative water treatment plant
No less than 4 billion litres of drinking water per year. With this capacity, the brand new water treatment plant of Farys, the drinking water company, can, in the first phase, supply the Flemish municipalities of Ostend and Middelkerke. Due to an innovative technique that makes brackish water suitable for consumption, ‘draining water to the sea’ is no longer the norm for this coastal region. The complete electrical installation and instrumentation was designed and executed by Digi-Flow. Partner itsme Breemes assisted them with technical product know-how.
As a project manager at Digi-Flow, Pieter van Daal is mainly involved in larger projects. There is no doubt that the construction of the entire E&I in Farys´ unmanned water treatment plant falls into this category – total costs: € 10 million.
Brief explanation: in the past, Ostend and Middelkerke relied on Wallonia for the supply of tap water. The new treatment plant pumps brackish water from the nearby Ostend-Brugge canal, which is first purified using regular sieves. During the next step, the water flows through membrane filters. The water molecules migrate to the inside, while the dirt remains on the outside of the filter. Finally, lime is added to the pure, but still brackish water, to make it drinkable.
A comprehensive solution requires cooperation
Farys is the first producer in Belgium and in Western Europe to use this innovative technology. The technology was developed by Veolia Water Technologies Belgium. Pieter explains that this organisation, as the main contractor, entrusted the electrification of the water treatment plant to Digi-Flow. “We provided the entire E&I, in other words, everything that falls under electrical and instrumentation. All electrical works, but also automation: writing the PLC and SCADA software to control the water treatment plant. We developed the programmes for every valve, every part that is controlled to run the plant.” Various parameters are registered through sensors, such as the pressure and water level. That data is then sent to a PLC, so that the different steps of the purification process can be controlled.
Pieter continues: “We are a one-stop supplier when it comes to solutions for automation and digitization. This market is developing at the speed of light and you can also see that the work is increasingly becoming specialist work. In order to supervise the entire project from A to Z and to be able to offer a comprehensive solution, we collaborate with partners in a number of areas. For the delivery of the electrotechnical materials we work with itsme Breemes.”
“To be able to offer a comprehensive solution, we collaborate with partners”
Although Digi-Flow’s portfolio now covers a much broader palette, it is mainly their extensive experience in the world of water treatment that led to the assignment at Farys. “We got the materials – the cables, cable ducts, cable runways, PLCs and all the installation materials – all Siemens components – from itsme Breemes. Through various smaller projects we found out that they can support us on a broad level. It is the technical product know-how that makes this collaboration so valuable for Digi-Flow,” says Pieter. “With only a minimum description of the problem, they already know enough to find a suitable solution. I certainly find this added value.” 
For example, Joren Marteaux, technical representative at itsme Breemes, investigated which modules and cards were most suitable. “You have a PLC main station, in which you put cards to create multiple I/Os. Emergency stops were also required. For this, I provided special Failsafe cards with the characteristic yellow colour. These are specially designed for safety applications that require high operational reliability,” explains Joren.
“And then there were the islands. For that you also found out what type of cables and connectors we needed,” says Pieter. From the main station in the central cabinet, control branches off to the various islands that control the machines in the treatment plant. This system was also consciously chosen, says Joren: “If a malfunction occurs, you can detect it quickly and efficiently and you immediately know which machine is causing the problem.”
At one point, one of the islands was found to be unable to communicate with the other devices. There was an analyser attached to the island in question which should have sent the collected data to the other islands, but the communication did not work. The cause? The analyser runs on Modbus RTU, while the island uses Profinet. “Joren recommended a Modbus-to-Profinet converter. There are sometimes 1001 possibilities to resolve something. It is then efficient for us if we can fall back on specialists.” And there are more factors that play a role in a market in which there are many competitors on the horizon. “We are of course not the only ones in this sector who work on such projects. itsme Breemes thinks with us and looks for suitable solutions with good availability.”
“itsme Breemes thinks with us and looks for suitable products”
In the meantime, the water purification plant in Ostend is operating at full speed. The second phase, to scale up capacity to 12 million litres of drinking water per day, has now started. Digi-Flow’s expertise will also be used there. “It is an additional challenge for Veolia Water Technologies Belgium to ensure that the plant continues to run while we are busy with the new work. We are again collaborating with itsme Breemes for the parts. We recently found out that we can rely on a team of product specialists for Festo components. That is yet another reason to do business together. In this way, we are making even more use of the potential of itsme Breemes.”
What’s in a name
Digi-Flow is an all-in solution partner in the area of automation and digitization and consists of two business units. “Projects and solutions” offers comprehensive solutions, from analysis to implementation and support, and ‘Consulting’ outsources staff. Their strength lies in the interaction between the two business units: consultants are also used during projects, so that they gain extra knowledge and experience. It is precisely this constant knowledge enrichment that is one of their core values, namely lifelong growth. Pieter van Daal says: “We see that technology has been given a permanent place at the business table, also among higher management. Companies see the need for digital transformation. Our mission is to guide traditional companies towards a future-proof industry. That is the thinking behind our motto: Our human flow for your digital industry.”