RHINE-MAIN WATER RESEARCH GMBH

About Us

Rhine-Main Water Research GmbH, former ESWE-Institute for Water Research and Water Technology in Wiesbaden, was founded in 1977.

The tasks of the non-profit Rhine-Main Water Research deal with scientific research of water supply, water analysis and surface water protection as well as research in this field.

As a subsidiary of Hessenwasser GmbH & Co KG the company acts as a centre of excellence for Hessenwasser. Hessenwasser is one of the largest water suppliers in the federal state of Hesse with investments of regional water suppliers like Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden and Darmstadt.

Today, the fields of work are ranging from research and development (including teaching) to technology transfer and consultancy services. Rhine-Main Water Research connects best available technology in water supply with the latest scientific developments.

Environmental Analysis and Radioactivity

Analysis / Environmental Analysis / Water Quality

Resources are getting shorter these days and water quality becomes an important area of work of Rhine-Main Water Research Ltd. (RMWR), a non-profit organisation. Water quality is understood not only as the quality of drinking water, but after European or WHO standards, but also as the quality of ground water and waste water, because these waters may have a decisive influence on the quality of drinking water. RMWR performs successfully since more than 20 years research projects on the field of water quality worldwide. For routine measurement we cooperate closely with the central laboratory of Hessenwasser GmbH & Co. KG, which is certificated in the field of water analysis and works with experienced staff and modern analytical instruments.

We are working especially on research projects in the field of natural radioactivity in water. We develop innovative processing methods, to remove radioactive substances as Uranium, Radium, and Radon from water, especially drinking water. With these methods, threshold values, presently coming into force in Germany and the European Union, can be safely observed.

The institute has long-standing experience in the field of unconventional analytics, e.g. of polar and persistent compounds in water. This is e.g. pharmaceutical residues and pesticides, from which we analysed their behaviour in the environment. We don’t stop at the analytical work; we also developed modern methods to separate contaminants from waste water and drinking water.

We analyse furthermore new chemicals for their degradation patterns in surface waters by a test-filter method after Sontheimer. In these filter systems river water is pumped, together with the new compound, over a bacteria colony on a special surface to see degradation pathways of the compound.

Water quality is in many countries not as well controlled as in Europe and therefore often of high interest abroad. We help to develop the sampling strategy and handling, the analysis and evaluation. We help to establish qualified laboratories with a qualified staff. We help to identify sources of contamination with the aim to close them.

Radioactivity

The department of radioactivity at RMWR mainly deals with the determination of natural and artificial radionuclides in aqueous samples. If the levels of the respective isotopes exceed the current regulations, we are able to provide sophisticated techniques for the removal of the most important radioactive substances from drinking water, including uranium and radium.

Determination of Radioactivity in Drinking Water

The determination of radionuclides in drinking water became increasingly important within the European Union since the implementation of the European Drinking Water Directive in 1998. The limit for the uptake of radionuclides via drinking water has been established in the form of a ``total indicative dose`` of 0.1 mSv per year. Unfortunately, the total indicative dose cannot be measured directly but has to be calculated from the summed up contribution of each natural or artificial radionuclide, which is present in drinking water - excluding 3H, 40K, radon and radon decay products.

It is well known that the process of determining the total indicative dose is difficult and troublesome. The main radionuclides of concern can however be minimized to be only the natural isotopes of uranium and radium along with 210Pb and 210Po. It has been recommended to apply screening-methods for a first cost-saving assessment of the radioactive content in drinking water. The parameters of choice are the gross-alpha and gross-beta activity concentration. If the gross-alpha activity in a tap water sample is lower than 0.1 Bq/l and the gross-beta activity does not exceed 1.0 Bq/l, it can be assumed that the annual total indicative dose of adults is less than 0.1 most per year.

Main Fields of Work within the Radioactivity Department

• Removal of radionuclides during water treatment
• Determination of natural and artificial radionuclides in ground-, drinking- and mineral waters
• Determination of radionuclides in solid matrices, such as residues from water treatment
• Development of new measurement procedures for determining natural radionuclides in liquid samples
• Radon-in-air measurements in waterworks and private homes
• Consulting service for water supply companies, mineral water producers and breweries
• Expert‘s reports in the field of natural radioactivity

Laboratory Equipment

Alpha/Beta/Gamma – Spectrometry
2 Liquid Scintillation Counters (Tritium measurements)
5 Triathler Multilabel Tester for Gross-Alpha/Beta & Radon determination
Radon-in-air monitors (Genitron Alpha-Guard)

Laboratory Capabilities

Accreditation after DIN/ISO 17025: One of the first laboratories in Germany with an accreditation with respect to radioactivity in drinking water.

Since October 2003, 10 different methods have been accredited by the German Accreditation Service for Chemistry (DACH):

- Natural and artificial radionuclides in water und solid matrices
- Radionuclides in ground-, drinking- and mineral water.

International Advisory Services

International Advisory Services was established in summer 2005.

The department aims at making the various resources, the know-how, and experiences of the ``Rhine-Main Water Research``, as well as of the parent company, ``Hessenwasser`` available for projects in technical and financial cooperation projects.

All enterprises in the water sector function under the umbrella of ``Stadtwerke Frankfurt am Main Holding`` (the City of Frankfurt Utilities Holding Company) avail of more than 1,000 highly qualified engineers, technicians, scientists, managerial, and administrative staff with specific ``operators know-how`` in

• Water supply
• Resources management
• Utility Management
• Financial management
• Information technologies
• Privatisation / Public Private Partnership

This expertise is made available as advisory services and training to water enterprises, municipalities, and ministries.

Rhine-Main Water Research works in close cooperation with the International Advisory Services Department of the ``Stadtwerke Frankfurt am Main Holding GmbH``. According to the specific requirements, multidisciplinary teams will be formed, in order to provide the best advice possible.

Additionally, Rhine-Main Water Research offers advisory services in all fields of expertise at the institute:

• Integrated water resources management (IWRM)
• Regional (water resources) planning and water management
• Natural radioactivity in water resources
• Research and applied sciences of water technology
• International water quality issues
• Artificial recharge of ground water
• Well management / well regeneration
• Waste water technologies
• Metals in water, waste water and sediments
• Organic trace analysis in waters
• Optimisation of water- and waste water treatment plants

References

• Staff of Rhine-Main Water Research was involved in planning and implementation of an international training course (for InWent), for managers and experts from various Arabian countries, on ``Integrated Water Resources Management``.
• A major Water Supply and Sewage Company in Albania has been supported by a key staff member as long-term adviser in the context of German financial co-operation with regard to financial and operational management in support of ongoing large infrastructure investment measures.
• Another expert is working on a survey, providing an expert opinion for the Gaza Emergency Water Project, covering
  - Water and Wastewater Sampling and Monitoring
  - Industrial Discharge

Maintenance Management

EDP-supported development of economically optimized line renewal strategies by damage analyses

The criteria for the replacement of lines in many water supply enterprises is still their age. Economically aligned strategies of the network renewal do still not exist in many places. In the context of a research project funded by German BMBF at our institute in Wiesbaden, a software for economical rehabilitation planning as well as the appropriate database are created.

From damage data, available in Wiesbaden for more than 10 years, and the use of economical algorithms, this program sets up damage prognoses for individual line sections of the supply network. By inclusion of costs of measures of renewal and sanitation the expected costs in the future can be calculated on base of these damage prognoses.

The line sections can be sorted according to different criteria in the program. Thereby, the network planner receives the possibility to find quickly and efficiently exact the line sections of the network, which must be primarily renewed or sanitized. Parallel to the software development investigations to causes of the damages like aggressive soils or hang sliding were executed. They supply further important information for the specification of the action decisions of the network planner. This information was integrated into the resource information system (GIS) and can be recalled for planning purposes.

Thus the combination of an economical rehabilitation program and resource information system provides an optimal package for decision making aid to the network planner.

The result for the city of Wiesbaden and its water supply company was an improved maintenance of the water supply lines and, with that, less costs for line rehabilitation measures now and in future.