AQUACONSULT opens new company headquarters in Traiskirchen

AQUACONSULT Anlagenbau has opened its new company headquarters in Traiskirchen. The company invested around five million euros in expanding the site, where all AEROSTRIP® fine-bubble strip diffusers for customers around the world are manufactured. The new building provides additional office and storage space as well as considerably more room for research and development. Alongside employees and business partners, guests at the opening ceremony included Kazuhiro Nagoya, President of the Japanese parent company SANKI ENGINEERING; Kiminori Iwama, Japan’s Ambassador to Austria; Traiskirchen Mayor Sabrina Divoky and Deputy Mayor Clemens Zinnbauer; and Christoph Kainz, a member of the Lower Austrian Parliament and Mayor of Pfaffstätten.
“Over the past few years, we have grown from a family business into an internationally active company. Our diffusers are now used all over the world, but every single one is manufactured here in Traiskirchen. The new building gives us the space we need to continue on this path and to keep investing in the development of our products,” says AQUACONSULT Managing Director Gerald Glaninger.

More space for employees, storage and research

AQUACONSULT has been manufacturing in Traiskirchen since 2008, and its offices moved to the site in 2012. Today, the company employs around 40 people here and produces approximately 40,000 AEROSTRIP® strip diffusers a year. The existing premises had become too small to support the company’s continued development. The new building has 28 office workstations, around 20 of which will be used initially. Staff will begin moving in over the coming weeks, with the relocation expected to be complete by December. Austrian companies, including businesses from the surrounding area, were involved in the construction.
The new building has also more than doubled AQUACONSULT’s own storage space. In the production warehouse, six-metre-high mobile shelving makes efficient use of the available space. The additional capacity allows the company to hold more materials in stock and respond more flexibly to fluctuations in supply chains.

Year-round testing in Europe’s largest diffuser test tank

Research and development played a central role in the planning of the new headquarters. “A test tank with a capacity of around 125 cubic metres and a water depth of eight metres has been integrated into the building. It will allow us to assess the performance of our diffusers under realistic conditions and test new products,” explains Glaninger. “For oxygen transfer tests, there is no comparable tank in Europe of this size and water depth.” While AQUACONSULT was previously able to conduct such tests only in summer, the new tank will make year-round testing possible. Integrating it into the building posed a particular construction challenge: a basement had to be built specifically to achieve the required water depth.
The new AEROSTRIP® Type R will also undergo further testing here before it is ready for the market. Its membrane can be replaced directly at the wastewater treatment plant when needed, while the rest of the diffuser remains in use. This allows the system to operate efficiently for up to 30 years. The materials used in its individual components can also be readily separated and recycled.

Working towards more climate-friendly wastewater treatment

By expanding its site, AQUACONSULT aims to make a further contribution to more climate-friendly wastewater treatment. Treating wastewater requires substantial amounts of energy: estimates put it at around 1.5 per cent of a country’s total energy consumption. Aeration in the biological treatment stage is particularly energy-intensive and can account for more than half of a wastewater treatment plant’s energy demand. 
This is where AEROSTRIP® fine-bubble strip diffusers come in. They supply oxygen to the wastewater while combining efficient energy use with a long service life. For treatment plants, this means lower operating costs and more economical use of energy and raw materials throughout the equipment’s lifetime. Developed and manufactured in Traiskirchen, the diffusers are already in use at more than 2,500 municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants worldwide.
AQUACONSULT also pays close attention to energy use at its own site. A photovoltaic system with 376 modules on the roof of the existing production hall generates around 165 megawatt-hours of electricity a year. On an annual balance basis, this is enough to cover the energy required to manufacture the diffusers and charge the company’s electric vehicles. The new building is heated by a heat pump and cooled in summer using thermally activated building elements. In this way, AQUACONSULT combines the development of energy-efficient wastewater treatment technology with investment in its own site.

Photos
(All photos: © Georg Krewenka)

Photos 1: Guests of honour at the opening of AQUACONSULT’s new headquarters in Traiskirchen, Lower Austria. From left: Christoph Kainz (member of the Lower Austrian Parliament and Mayor of Pfaffstätten), Kiminori Iwama (Japan’s Ambassador to Austria), Kazuhiro Nagoya (President of SANKI ENGINEERING), Noboru Funakubo and Gerald Glaninger (Managing Directors of AQUACONSULT Anlagenbau), Akihiyo Umezawa (General Manager at SANKI ENGINEERING), Sabrina Divoky (Mayor of Traiskirchen) and Clemens Zinnbauer (Deputy Mayor of Traiskirchen).

Photo 2: AQUACONSULT Anlagenbau invested around five million euros in its new headquarters in Traiskirchen. The building provides more space for offices, storage, research and development.

Photo 3: The centrepiece of the new building is a test tank with a capacity of 125 cubic metres and a water depth of eight metres. AQUACONSULT can use it to assess the performance of its AEROSTRIP® strip diffusers under realistic conditions throughout the year. For oxygen transfer tests, there is no comparable tank in Europe of this size and water depth.