Rotork actuators support Portugal’s plan for advanced wastewater treatment

The Viseu Sul wastewater treatment plant in Portugal’s Viseu County is the first in the country to adopt advanced membrane filtration (MBR) wastewater treatment technology.

The highly automated treatment facility, serving a population of 90,000, was recently inaugurated by the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and is named as a national environmental benchmark for future developments.

MBR treatment plants work without the addition of chemicals and with relatively low energy consumption, combining secondary and tertiary treatment and eliminating traditional sand and carbon filtration.

Centralised process control and automation at Viseu Sul is facilitated using Profibus DP network technology, utilising Rotork’s latest multi-turn and part-turn intelligent non-intrusive electric actuators (IQ and IQT respectively) to operate penstocks and butterfly valves for flow control throughout the wastewater treatment process.

The Rotork IQ Profibus DP interface card provides comprehensive control and feedback data about the valve and actuator using DP-VO cyclic communication.

Extensive actuator diagnostics and configuration information is included in the DP-V1 acyclic data supported by the card, enabling valve profiling and diagnostic data collected by the IQ actuator to be incorporated into asset management systems.

In addition to being the most advanced WWTP in Portugal, the new Viseu Sul plant will enable the closure of other treatment plants in the area which do not meet the latest environmental regulations.