SATTURN wins national competitions

SATTURN HOLEŠOV spol. s r.o. is proud to hold the “Visionary 2019” award and to be the winner of the national “Innovation of the Year 2019” competition for the technology project “Comprehensive system telemetry for municipal networks of domestic wastewater treatment plants and water treatment facilities”. The competitions are organised by CzechInno (www.czechinno.cz) and AIP ČR (www.aipcr.cz).

These prestigious awards recognise the innovative project’s technological, social and economic contribution to the environment and water management in the landscape.

For the project “Chimera – a mobile application for encrypted communication between users”, the company received an honourable mention in the “Visionaries 2019” competition for its technological and social contribution to protecting privacy in electronic communications.

The company carried out this project with Code Creator s.r.o. and VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, the lead investigator.

The company has actively worked on the environmental project “Decentralised wastewater treatment with a telemetry control system” for more than ten years. Wider adoption of this technology came only in recent years, as the government has increasingly had to address extreme drought across the country rather than flood protection. This is closely linked to water management in the landscape.

This innovative approach to municipal wastewater treatment in rural areas and outlying urban districts is more cost-effective than building centralised sewerage systems.

A second advantage is that the entire municipal sewerage project can be implemented without digging up local roads or managing traffic restrictions during construction.

A third benefit is retaining water in the landscape, specifically within the built-up areas of municipalities. Treated wastewater is returned to nature where it was generated. It is most often used to irrigate gardens, ornamental plants, lawns and trees, or infiltrated on the property of the house connected to the plant, benefiting the local microclimate. Discharge into a local watercourse or existing storm sewer is used in only one third of completed installations.

This approach to rural wastewater management also has an educational benefit. Domestic treatment plant users are monitored online by a professional operator who can assess how responsibly they operate the plant. Most users also reuse the treated wastewater as utility water, so achieving the best possible effluent quality is in their own interest.

Finally, using treated wastewater together with rainwater for utility or technical purposes conserves drinking water resources for their primary purposes, rather than flushing toilets or watering lawns and ornamental gardens.

All these factors benefit the rural environment. They rely on ENCELADUS technology, which enables municipal networks of domestic wastewater treatment plants linked by online monitoring and remote control of individual plants’ operating states.

An extension module provides remote water meter readings, giving operators an online overview of water consumption virtually 24/7. It is also linked to telemetry for monitoring and controlled pumping of reservoirs and drinking water treatment facilities.