Shanghai is one of the largest cities in the world. Around 15 million people live in the downtown area alone. Over the past years, the Chinese government has invested very heavily in ensuring access to clean drinking water, especially for the populations of large metropolises. One of the primary hurdles in Shanghai is its water mains system, with more than 35,000 km of piping, some sections of which are more than 100 years old. “Shanghai’s water treatment systems produce high-quality drinking water. Unfortunately, this quality seldom makes it to consumers’ taps”, says Günter Mösslein, managing director of Mösslein Wassertechnik, based in Lohr am Main in Lower Franconia, Germany. And he knows what he’s talking about: With more than 70 employees, his company, founded in 1989, ensures water quality meeting German hygiene standards for consumers around the globe. Since 2019, the water specialists from Lower Franconia have not only supplied special chemicals to China for cleaning water facilities and systems, but have also been providing on-site maintenance and service. Mösslein is supplying a water test unit as part of a scientific research project with the objective of testing a silicate inhibitor for pipe maintenance to prevent rust, corrosion and deposits both, in order to assess its impact on drinking water quality and on the pipes themselves in Shanghai. “The system simulates typical stagnation and flow conditions in eight different pipe materials – both with and without the inhibitor additive“, explains Mösslein. “Pressure, temperature and flow must not only be reliably and exactly regulated for this test setup, but must also be documented as well.”
