Pure Innovation

In a little over 50 years, Grünbeck has established know-how in virtually every aspect of water treatment, with products and services for homes, the industrial and commercial sector, swimming pools and for treating waste water. Around 400 staff are employed at its headquarters and main production centre at Hoechstaedt in Bavaria. Central to the success of this business is an ongoing mission to bring innovative solutions to the market well ahead of the competition. Its R&D department is constantly scanning the horizon to anticipate trends in the field.

Pioneering new treatments

A milestone for the firm was the development of the groundbreaking GENO-BREAK® system for eliminating Legionella bacteria from water. The bacterium causes Legionnaires’ Disease – a potentially fatal type of pneumonia that was only discovered in 1976. Legionella inhabit host organisms – amoeba – that live in water. They become hazardous to health if fine droplets of contaminated water are inhaled. Air conditioning units are therefore typically considered a risk, but showers or bath taps can also cause a problem. Grünbeck’s system is designed for use in water distribution systems in hospitals, hotels, schools or residential homes for the elderly – places where those particularly at risk from the bug are likely to be. Tthe challenge for the firm was to produce a solution without adding chemicals to the water. The problem is that the Legionella host organism protects it against chlorine disinfection or just ultra violet light on its own. A combination of ultrasonic – that destroys the host organism – with UV light makes it possible to destroy Legionella. The big advantage of this system is that all other treatments change the water quality.

Development process

Grünbeck sales split about 50/50 between off-the-shelf products, mainly for residential use, and customer-specific projects, usually for industrial clients. The Grünbeck approach to product development takes advantage of this range of expertise. After finding a unique solution to a client-specific challenge, the firm will often adapt the technology to the broader market. Grünbeck management believes this technology exchange between the project and residential business areas gives the firm an edge over the competition. A good example of this in operation comes from the industrial waste water field – a growth area for the firm. Grünbeck has just built an arsenic removal plant for a Dutch company. The waste water was fed into the North Sea for many years but because of tightening legislation this has been cut off. Grünbeck provided a treatment that takes out more than a tonne of arsenic per year. The firm now plans to produce small units suitable for a village or for individual homes.

Growth drivers

Membrane technology is a major growth area for Grünbeck. Recent developments in this technology mean that ultra-filtration of minute particles and microbiological organisms is now cost-effective for a wider range of applications in industrial and municipal settings. This is another area in which Grünbeck is in the vanguard. Changes in water legislation in terms of turbidity and microbiological parameters, which have become much stronger, require big water resources, such as waterworks to utilise technologies which are only now just becoming available. With ultra-filtration and reverse osmosis the trend is going towards bigger and bigger plants. Last year, Grünbeck supplied two plants with capacity running at 400qm per hour – which is quite big for reverse osmosis – and is at the moment working for a power plant water resource which has the same volume.

Another area of increased interest within the industrial waste water treatment field is recycling. A number of factors are driving this trend. There is a growing realisation of the pressures on the freshwater supply, even in northern Europe where it is seemingly abundant but where demand is growing. Plus the legislative framework is pushing industry to reduce discharges into watercourses and adopt more sophisticated methods of dealing with waste. Grünbeck knows both sides of the equation – treating fresh and waste water. Companies realize that they can save a lot of money, and high volumes of water, because of the double effect that the more water you recycle, the less fresh water you need, and you don’t have to dispose of the waste water either.