Q. With regard to water and wastewater applications, what is Grundfos’ core business function?
A. Grundfos is involved in the supply of a range of equipment used by the wastewater industry. This includes pumps, disinfection and dosing equipment, as well as some of the instrumentation that is used to monitor and control the processes.
Pumps: Our range includes various types of centrifugal pumps, ranging from submersible pumps and self-priming pumps designed to handle large solids to high-pressure pumps that are typically used to deliver treated effluent for reutilisation as industrial water. In cases where the final outflow water has to be treated by reverse osmosis, the Grundfos CR range of pumps is a common sight at recycling plants.
Dosing equipment: As part of the effluent treatment process, certain chemicals have to be dosed into the effluent. Grundfos offers a range of tested and proven equipment that can dose chemicals as:
– dry product (powder/granules), e.g. lime for pH adjustment
– liquid chemicals products, e.g. ferric chloride that is used to improve phosphate removal and acts as a coagulant of suspended particles
– chlorine gas (and other gasses) that is dosed into the final outflow to prevent the release of harmful bacteria into our rivers and dams.
Grundfos also has ready-built plants that prepare chemicals on site. These include:
– the Grundfos “Polidos”, which has become more popular in recent years and is used to make up the polyelectrolyte from dry powder on site
– a range of chlorine dioxide dosing systems to be used as an alternative disinfectant
– in cases where the logistics of transporting chlorine gas to site is a problem, Grundfos can offer a range of hypochlorite dosing systems ranging from on-site generation from salt to the dosing of HTH or sodium hypochlorite.
Instrumentation: A range of instruments to monitor and control pH, chlorine residual as well as monitor the plant for chlorine gas leaks are available from Grundfos

Q. How has Grundfos been involved in the Blue and/or Green Drop awards? Were you suppliers to water/wastewater treatment works?
A. One of the critical criteria when Blue/Green Drop awards are done is the disinfection of the final effluent. It is found that the larger centres have the equipment and expertise to operate and maintain the dosing of chlorine into the final effluent before leaving the treatment works. It mostly at the smaller treatment works where this function is sub-standard – or not happening at all! Grundfos’s water treatment division is stocking equipment as an ‘installation kit’ to enable a municipal authority to set-up a safe chlorine dosing facility in a relative short time. The benefits of this service have been demonstrated when a crisis took place and remedial action was taken with a short deadline.

Q. What is your view on the Blue and Green Drop certification process? Are the regulations set by the Department of Water Affairs within reason? How has this certification improved water and wastewater networks within municipalities?
A. We are of the opinion that the Blue and Green Drop certification system has had a positive effect. We often have calls from municipalities and even from the plant operators stating: “We need equipment or a service urgently to maintain/or upgrade our Green Drop status.” The effect is that the industry and the customer have become partners in providing a better quality effluent. Grundfos is proud to be able to support the wastewater industry with the selection/design and supply of equipment. The company is also very instrumental in the design and supply of equipment to the water industry.

Q. In the past three years, who have been Grundfos’s biggest clients in the water and wastewater industry?
A. A large portion of the Grundfos equipment supplied to the industry is via the main contractors that specialise in the supply and installation of the mechanical equipment at wastewater treatment works. The equipment is supplied either directly to these contractors or indirectly via the Grundfos network of agents throughout Africa. At present, Grundfos Water Treatment division is executing various orders to Rand Water Board and Johannesburg Water for factory preassembled equipment as ‘dosing stations’. This equipment is factory tested and can easily be deployed on site.

Q. What groundwater supply products does Grundfos have on offer?
A. As a matter of interest, it is now 50 years since Grundfos sold its first pumps into Africa. Since then the Grundfos SP range of borehole pumps have become a well-respected product in the groundwater industry. Due to the increasing risk of groundwater contamination with bacteria, Grundfos can now also offer a customised dosing system to sanitise the water as it leaves the borehole so that safe water can be provided for consumption.