Water Management Summit for Manufacturing Plants

The problem: The paint pretreatment area had few meters, so rinse flows were set by operator judgement and leaks went unseen until the quarterly bill.

Published result: Measured: 15% less water per vehicle, 25 million gallons of water per year and more than $190,000 in savings; alarms also caught a boiler-blowdown leak of more than 91,000 gallons (as reported by Ecolab)

Invited: Ecolab (Nalco Water) · Read the published case

The problem: The plant used 92 million gallons a year but had manual valves and no view of where water went on its paint line.

Published result: Measured: about 5,000,000 gallons a year saved (3,742,000 gallons of RO rinse water plus 1,250,000 gallons of RO reject), $47,000 a year, 25% of the 2030 goal in the first year, payback under a year (as reported by Ecolab)

Invited: Ecolab (Nalco Water) · Read the published case

The problem: Variable river conditions strained the plant's raw-water, cooling-water and wastewater systems.

Published result: More than 190 million gallons of water saved (period not stated) and cooling-water corrosion rates reduced by up to 87% (as reported by Solenis)

Invited: Solenis, with LyondellBasell · Read the published case

The problem: Making ultrapure water takes a lot of energy, and conventional RO spacers foul and scale, raising pressure drop.

Published result: Measured in a pilot: energy costs down 29 per cent over the pilot; stage one energy savings rose from 19 to 22 per cent and stage two from 29 to 37 per cent over two months; pressure-drop rise four times lower than mesh spacers (as reported by Aquatech)

Invited: Aqua Membranes, with Micron Technology · Read the published case

The problem: An inorganic coagulant fed at high rates made over 100,000 extra pounds of sludge a year, filling a dumpster every week.

Published result: Estimated: haul-offs from 52 to 9 a year, sludge handling cost down 60% and over $100,000 saved a year; effluent turbidity averaging 100 NTU or less (as reported by Kurita America)

Invited: Kurita America · Read the published case

The problem: The textile-chemicals plant wanted to cut fresh-water intake and discharge.

Published result: The plant is reclaiming up to 90%-95% of its wastewater (as reported by Archroma)

Invited: Gradiant, with Archroma · Read the published case

The problem: Membrane cleaning used large volumes of fresh water in whey processing.

Published result: Measured: cleaning-related water down over 40%, over 1 million gallons of fresh water saved in the first 10 months of operation (as reported by ZwitterCo)

Invited: ZwitterCo · Read the published case

The problem: The sand filters on the plant's cooling towers had no sand, so water quality relied on a daily timed backwash.

Published result: Measured by DOE over a year: 6-17% less makeup water, and the new filter used 95% less energy than the old one, with no significant effect on chiller energy (as reported by U.S. DOE / LBNL)

Invited: ElectroCell Systems, with Nissan North America · Read the published case

The problem: Suspended solids in open-loop cooling-tower water drove fouling, blowdown and chemical use.

Published result: Measured by DOE over a year: 8-15% less makeup water, 45% less chemical treatment, chiller energy down 1.1-1.4% and air-compressor efficiency up 2.9-3.3% (as reported by U.S. DOE / LBNL)

Invited: ElectroCell Systems, with Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi · Read the published case

The problem: Recycled makeup water for the cooling systems carried high iron, limiting cycles.

Published result: Water use reduced by 357 million gallons per year and about $1.5 million a year in operating cost savings; the allowable iron limit doubled (as reported by Solenis)

Invited: Solenis, with Marathon Petroleum · Read the published case