Sludge in new dimensions

Sludge in new dimensions

SPANGLER – the Plus of Security.

The city Bello located in the North West of Colombia is currently building one of the largest plants for sewage sludge worldwide. The project is designed for a population of 2.75 million inhabitants and can drain about 400 tons or 25 truckloads of sewage sludge. The operating company uses the waste heat of gas turbines for the drying. Afterwards the dried sludge is burned and thus energetically used again.

Spangler planned, engineered and programmed the automation technology for the plant on behalf of Huber SE in Berching. Furthermore, the start-up was supported via Spangler Sky Service from Germany but also on site.

Redundant SCADA system

In order to reach the daily capacity planned, three belt dryer streets operate with a drying capacity of 6.5 cubic metres of sewage sludge per second in total. A SCADA system designed redundantly ensures that the processes are monitored continuously and the plant is permanently available. More than 60 control cabinet fields control three redundant lines plus their power input whose monitoring is done fully automatic.

High operational safety

In order to minimise damage in the case of a short circuit due to component fatigue, an electric arc monitoring system monitors the entire control system and thus creates additional protection in the event of a fault. The operating personnel can access the SCADA system, which works with about 15.000 process variables and was programmed by Spangler, from the entire plant via WLAN access points. Spangler installed four PLC S7-1500F as main controls, 160 Profinet participants are connected. “The fail-safe PLC in connection with the PROFIsafe bus system allows a machine safety and thus an operational safety at the highest level,” Martin Müller, Spangler Sales Manager, underlines this issue.

Realised plant control station with SCADA system
Realised plant control station with SCADA system
Newsletter2020-01_Bello_Schaltanlage
Control cabinets for three belt dryers plus power input