Welcome to the July/August 2018 edition of Industrial WaterWorld. Our feature article this month taps into the world of brewing for insights into on site wastewater treatment. As author Alanna Maya explains, brewing is a water-intensive industry: it takes roughly eight pints of water to brew just one pint of beer. Wastewater from the brewing process is loaded with solids, sugar, and alcohol — constituents that will probably result in hefty surcharges from the local utility. Finding ways to efficiently manage wastewater helps brewers — like Seismic, Founders, and Stone — avoid those high fees and realize significant savings in the long term. Read the full article on page 18.
Cooling towers are among the highest water consumers in industrial operations — and are also prone to scaling and corrosion issues. On page 25, Bryan Brister discusses how a margarine manufacturer, located in a part of Germany where water costs are high, sought a way to reduce consumption by adopting a new water treatment solution for its cooling towers. It selected membrane capacitive deionization technology — and saw a number of improvements, including a 26% reduction in water usage.
Securing energy supply is a key component of Chinese energy policy. Focusing on its coal resources, the country has established a Coal-to-X (CTX) industry to replace, at least in part, the use of oil and gas in the various fuel and chemicals sectors. But as CK Tiwari explains on page 28, this presents a pollution challenge given China’s directive to include zero liquid discharge in wastewater management plans for new projects. Tiwari discusses how one CTX plant met this objective.
A popular mustard-maker expanded its product line to include salad dressing. But the resulting wastewater had a very different composition than what the company was used to: it now contained lots of fats, oils, and grease (FOG) that the municipal wastewater plant would charge extra to treat. Turn to page 41 where author Jim McMahon describes how the manufacturer not only reduced BOD and TOC but reduced sewer discharge fees by 70 percent.
In this month’s Market Insight column from Bluefield Research (see page 17), Mike Kozar sets his sights on the mining industry. He discusses how outside forces, like water scarcity and pressure from environmental groups, are compelling mining companies to address water management and environmental impacts, particularly with regard to tailings management. Emerging solutions are explored.
Please enjoy this edition of Industrial WaterWorld!
