Siemens marks a century of chlorinated water disinfection

The first commercially produced gas chlorinator was installed in a public drinking water system in 1913, revolutionising the way the world fought water-borne diseases, which killed nearly 30,000 people per year in the 1900s in the United States alone. The technology was installed by Wallace & Tiernan - now a company of Siemens Water Technologies, which is celebrating the product’s 100th anniversary.

The technology has expanded globally since then, and the Siemens Water Technologies Wallace & Tiernan brand of chlorinators continues to meet the needs of municipal, industrial and aquatics users today. Chlorination is used throughout a range of operations, including waterworks, swimming pools, power generation, sewage treatment, food processing and industrial applications.

In addition to chlorination solutions by chlorine gas, hypochlorite or chlorine dioxide, Siemens also provides membrane treatment, high-rate clarification, disinfection by-product (DBP) treatment and controls technologies, as well as technical expertise to help consulting engineers, municipalities and industries clean and purify water.

Siemens Australia CEO Jeff Connolly says that water security is still one of the most significant and important challenges of the 21st century and remains high on the agenda for Australia. And technology available today can create a sustainable future for water in Australia - if we continue to apply it.

“Our long-term water security will come from a number of sources including catchments, re-use, recycling and desalination,” Connolly said. “However, what we don’t want to do is wait until the next 20-year drought before we think about water again. I think a better way to look at it is to ask ourselves how we can use technology now to increase our prosperity as a nation, improve productivity, provide access to even cleaner and better quality drinking water, and help our industries thrive and compete on a global scale.”

Siemens Water Technologies’ commitment to innovation continues through its research and development focused on ultrapure water and drinking water, waste reduction, energy and process efficiency, desalination and water re-use. Among the current R&D initiatives underway is an advanced desalination technology to greatly increase energy efficiency.  The company holds more than 1800 granted patents and patent applications.

“The use of chlorine in water treatment has arguably done more to safeguard the health of the world than any other development,” said Dr Lukas Loeffler, Siemens Water Technologies CEO. “To this day, chlorination in general is still the most widely used disinfection method internationally and we continue to develop it and other water and wastewater treatment technologies to ensure safe drinking water, clean process water for industry and a healthy environment.”

Siemens Water Technologies provides comprehensive treatment systems and services to meet rigorous demands in virtually any water application, with both the latest advances and a wide range of legacy brands such as Wallace & Tiernan, USFilter, Ionpure, Permutit, Envirex, Memcor, Illinois Water Treatment, Westates Carbon, Arrowhead, Electrocatalytic Products and others.