Our company, aquila wasseraufbereitungstechnik gmbh has been active on the European market for over 13 years as a manufacturer, constructor and supplier of energy-efficient plants in water purification for public indoor and outdoor swimming pools. We specialize in manufacturing water purification plants in combination with the Captura® filtration system for water treatment. This system, named "Captura®" is derived from the Latin language and can be translated as “gain”. The Latin name has not been chosen without good reason. With their viaducts the Romans managed to transport water over long distances without using external energy. This would be unthinkable for us today. We would rather use another pump and not worry much about the ecological and economic consequences. This aspect has been the motivation for developing this new filter system. The Captura® wastes neither energy nor water. Captura® is a filter system for the treatment of pool water in public baths showing the following characteristics: • No fault of filter bed, therefore best quality of filtrate • Effective and short flushing through optimum discharging of dirt • About 30 % - 50 % less use of energy than with pressure sand filters • About 20 % - 30 % less floor space required than with pressure sand filters • About 40 % - 60 % less space than with pressure sand filters • About 45 % - 50 % less flushing water than with pressure sand filters • Low maintenance, as fully automatic The Innovation We used the same technical principle and the same features contributing to the treatment quality as for the well-tried pressure sand filters. However, the flow conditions inside the Captura® were optimized considerably. In addition to all the other advantages, this optimization increased the filtrate quality and thus the water quality. The Economic and Ecological Advantages The projects with a Captura® filtration plant realized until now and currently being built have a water treatment capacity of 40.000 m³/ h in total. By using Captura®, the consumption compared with conventional plants is reduced as follows: Electricity 9.047.225 kWh/a Water / waste water 568.442 m³/a Heat 10.231.981 kWh/a This could result in a theoretically possible CO2 lowering potential of 6.264 tons per year. The communities as responsible authorities for these plants may save up to 3.752.000 Euro operating expenses per year (as at 09/2008). In 2002, this filtration system won the "Dr. Rudolf-Eberle-Preis". Its an Energy Efficiency & Innovation Award", which is issued by the chamber of industry and commerce Heilbronn-Franken. In 2004, it won the "VR-InnovationsPreis Mittelstand 2004". Its an Innovation Award for medium companies", which is issued by the Baden Württemberg Ministry for Economics and Technology. With our water purification plants the raw material "water" will be used in an economically and ecologically sensible way – a more favourabable result in operating costs with an enormous synergy in the „reduction of heating energy“. A better utilization of the real energy-saving potential „water circulation” with our plant system – a more favorable result in operating costs. Through meaningful and accurate interpretation capacity, using the latest and most efficient plant components and our harmonious overall design and implementation, we create it, to achieve the following advantages: Implement economic, energy-saving measures with short amortization periods. With our water purification plants you are implementing a measure and investment which will contribute effectively to the reduction of CO2 emissions and therefore provide an active support of climate protection. And we plan to build on our achievements in the field of energy efficiency: our developers are currently working on new and innovative systems that will help us and our customers to use energy even more efficiently.