The Secret of the Tiny Bubbles
Interview with Andreas Stein, Managing Director of enviplan® Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH
Sometimes it's the small things that work miracles. Like microscopic bubbles that bind pollutants in water and thus help to clean it. This principle of microflotation has been patented by enviplan® Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH. Today, the company is unique in this method of wastewater treatment and is really taking off after a successful trade fair.
"We were just able to present our microflotation technology very successfully at IFAT 2024," says Managing Director Andreas Stein, who has been with the company since 2001 and has also been the Managing Director of the engineering office for about eleven years. Today, 20 employees are working on the further development of the unique microflotation technology. "There is a conventional DAF, for Dissolved Air Flotation, which has been used since the 18th century to separate solids from dust in coal mines. It is also used to clean water, using air bubbles," explains Andreas Stein. "We now manage to generate microscopically small bubbles that are only half the diameter of a hair. This makes the water look like milk. These air bubbles are blown into the water and rise very slowly. During this process, the particles adhere to the bubbles. At the surface, a skimmer skims off the harmful particles. Our microflotation system has now partially replaced the conventional DAF."
And for good reason, because enviplan®'s process is very energy-efficient and operates with little or no chemicals to transport the bubbles to the surface. “In addition, our system offers the world’s only maintenance-free microflotation valves,” emphasizes Andreas Stein. Microflotation, which provides strong cleaning performance in municipal and industrial wastewater applications, is just one element in the portfolio. “Through our know-how, we have been able to offer a complete wastewater treatment portfolio for several years now, so that the customer only has to deal with one contact person,” says Andreas Stein.
Committed to Clean Water
Today, many customers come from abroad, such as Dubai, Bahrain or Asia, yet a main focus is Europe. "We have done a lot in industrial water treatment, but microflotation is particularly effective in clarification technology and requires only one tenth the space. This is a market with a future," says Andreas Stein. Currently, enviplan® is participating in a research project on selective sludge separation. The commitment to a green environment and clean water continues.