Siemens expands digital water solutions

Siemens has expanded its digital water range with SIWA Quality Inspector, a software module for data-driven water quality decision-making. It analyses water quality parameters in real time — from treatment all the way to the end consumer — and helps operators detect changes in the network early, such as water age, mixing effects in tanks, or quality deviations in distribution. Siemens says that in doing so, it provides the foundation for more proactive operating strategies and preventative maintenance.

For wastewater treatment, Siemens has also developed the SIWA Treatment Optimizer, a software solution based on physics-based models that supports plant operators with real-time process control. At its core, the solution uses mechanistic process models to analyse the treatment process in real time and deliver explicit control recommendations for plant operation. Digital twin technology also enables the simulation of design scenarios. All SIWA applications are part of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio.

Siemens is also introducing ‘soft sensors’ to continuously calculate process variables such as total suspended solids, biological oxygen demand and nitrous oxide emissions — even where physical instrumentation is unavailable. This aims to give operators a deeper view of actual process performance and help ensure compliance with regulatory limits, even under fluctuating influent conditions. Depending on the use case, energy cost savings of up to 25% are achievable, according to the company.

“Water and wastewater operations are often difficult to assess in real time, leading operators to rely on experience or safety margins. Our digital solutions bring greater transparency to process behaviour,” said Amrutha Venugopal, Head of the Water and Waste business at Siemens. “With SIWA applications, soft sensing and real-time water quality monitoring, operators can make more precise decisions — for example on aeration or chlorine dosing — reducing uncertainty as well as energy and chemical consumption. These scalable solutions are built for the realities of today’s plants and networks.”

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