03 bwc business - blackwell water consultancy business issue 3.pdf · these are questions many...
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PO Box 235Darlington
County Durham DL1 9GN
www.blackwellwaterconsultancy.co.uk
Blackwell Water Consultancy Ltd News
• BWC short-listed for Scottish consultancy contractBlackwell Water Consultancy Ltd has recently been short-listed for a consultancy contract for
a client in Scotland. We hope to have more news about this before Christmas.
• Procee modelling partnershipWe're returning to one of our old skills and moving back into the area of process modelling.
Over the last few months we've been working with a software supplier on projects to develop
process modelling solutions for the UK water industry. More news in the New Year!
BWC Business
In the next issue
Next year we will launch our
Day in the life of....series. Our
first three issues have
concentrated on general topics
and issues for business and
domestic consumers of water.
In issue four we look in detail
at how our drinking-quality
water is produced, from initial
rainfall through treatment to
delivery through your taps.
Merry Christmas from BWC!
It's been a hectic but productive
year for us here at BWC and
we're hankering now for mince
pies and our feet up by the fire
as we gaze fondly at an idyllic
snowy scene outside. In reality
we'll be doing our last minute
shopping with everyone else.
Merry Christmas to all and we
wish you the best of New Years!
Who we are
Blackwell Water Consultancy
Ltd is based in north-east
England but operates
throughout the UK. We give
advice to businesses in all parts
of the UK economy about the
efficient and sustainable use of
water.
This covers everything from
assessing domestic fixtures and
fittings to designing entire
treatment plant. Our website
has more information about
what we do.
Water, water everywhere...................The UN Copenhagen Climate Change
Conference 2009 is due to end on December
18th. It will address, or try to, the key issues
facing the world as we cope with a changing
environment. All bar one. As we write this we
understand that the Copenhagen conference
does not intend to include water sustainability
in any of the agreements the conference will
produce.
Why? Water is still seen by consumers in the West as a
cheap, bulk commodity. In the UK we have high quality
water delivered to our door at all times for a reasonable
price. The environmental aspects of producing water
(the elelctricity consumption, the need to use certain
chemicals) are hidden from most consumers and we
don't have to walk miles each day to get it.
But will this always be the case? As the planet's climate
changes will water always be available as it is now,
especially in the West and for us in the UK. The
Copenhagen conference will rightly address the role of
carbon dioxide emissions, and it will be bogged down in
the row over the alleged cover-up or distortion of certain
aspects of climate change.
This issue was brought home to BWC at a recent event
we attended. A local businessman told us that his
teenage son leaves the tap running full when cleaning
his teeth. A classic example of water inefficiency said the
businessman, but how does it really impact climate
change? His son was of the opinion that we live in a
rainy country with a plentiful supply of water and that
letting clean drinking water run down the drain was,
therefore, wholly acceptable.
Producing drinking water can be an energy-intensive
business when done on a large scale. If only one
person in the entire UK leaves the tap running then the
effect is, in truth, negligible. But it's not just one person,
and leaving the tap running is only one way that water is
wasted. Consequently an enormous amount of energy is
wasted each year with clean water that goes down the
drain. Wasted energy eqautes to carbon dioxide
emissions that may have been avoided.
And that brings us to the topic of this edition of our
newsletter – water efficiency and, in particular, re-using
and recycling water. We'll take a brief look at how we
can get greater use from our water.
In this issueWater, water everywhere P.1
Industrial wastewater P.2
Re-using & recycling wastewater P.3
BWC news P.4
I S S U E
D e c e m b e r2 0 0 9
03
BWC Business Issue 4
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Industrial wastewater: some facts and figures
The web-site of the Office for
National Statistics (ONS) shows
that industry, manufacturing and
the service sector in the UK
uses 80% of all water
abstracted. This is around 10
billion cubic metres per year.
This is a truly enormous figure
and shows how reliant industry
is on the continuous provision or
availability of clean water. But,
does the water really need to be
drinking water quality?
The answer is a firm “no”. Much of the
water inudustry uses is for duties such
as heating, cooling and washing. In
many cases, once the water has done
its job, it ends up down the drain.
Think about this from the point of view
of sustainability, though. If you're a
factory manager, do you really need to
use as much water in the first place?
Can any of your wastewater be re-
used without treatment? Could some
form of treatment give you re-usable
water? These are questions many
companies actively pursue as the use
of water becomes another cost to be
reduced.
Industry uses gigantic quantities of water, much of it drinking quality. How much does it really use? Re-using and recycling industrial wastewater
Turning effluent into high-purity water
High-purity water is often needed
for use in boilers. In simple terms,
the better quality the water, the
less scale occurs in the boiler. It
is possible to turn effluent into
high-purity water but the costs
can be high.
High-purity water is best
produced by membrane
processes. These use cylindrical
membranes formed from material
with very fine pores. The
membranes can remove
incredibly small material (down to
the molecular size) but clearly
solid material will cause them to
clog. Consequently, pre-
treatment with a solids-removal
process is advisable. This type of
arrangement can produce very
high-purity water but even that
may not be good enough for
some industrial users.
Ultra high-purity waterThis can be produced by using
what are known as ion-exchange
processes after membrane
treatment. These are simple and
consist of a vessel filled with very
small beads. The beads are
designed to attract certain
molecules in water and can so
mop up anything that gets past a
membrane process. Io-exchange
processes also have low power
requirements.
How, then, can industrial consumers,
large and small, reduce water
consumption? The first stage is to
carry out a full water audit. This is a
service BWC offer and it entails a
thorough review of everywhere water
is used at a manufacturing site. Once
you know how much water you use,
realistic targets for reducing
consumption can then be set.
sending you your water bill.
On large sites, with a number of
different operations, it is often the case
that individual parts of the process are
not metered. Sub-metering entails
installing flow meters at the entry point
to individual parts of a large plant,
factory or even office building. This
enables water use in each part of the
site to be measured.
Measurable goals
A water audit often
shows up “quick wins”
that can reduce
consumption at no
cost other than
changing practices.
Examples include turning off taps and
hoses when not in use or sweeping
debris rather than rinsing it down the
drain (this can reduce trade effluent
costs as well since solid waste can
increase the strength of effluent).
To truly get to grips with reducing water
consumption, though, you should
consider sub-metering. All businesses
should have a water meter that records
consumption on the entire site. It's this
meter the water company uses when
Simple tips
Reducing water use
doesn't have to be
complicated or
expensive. Quite
often big savings can
result from relatively
small actions.
The UK government's Enhanced
Capital Allowance (ECA) scheme
provides tax incentives for installing
water-efficient equipment. As well as
industrial water treatment processes it
also covers items such as taps,
showers and toilet facilities. The tax-
break can make the financial aspect of
reducing water use more attractive. In
short, reducing water consumption for
businesses can be simple, low-cost
and financially worthwhile.
“UK industry uses
around 10 billion
cubic metres of
water each year”
It's clear that using less water can
reduce operating costs substantially
but how can you tackle re-use and
recycling? And what is the difference?
At BWC we use the terms re-use and
recycling to mean two different things,
although we recognise that some
people use them to refer to the same
process.
We use re-use to men using water for
more than one purpose without treating
it in any way. For example, spent
cooling water may well be clean enough
to wash items of equipment or cleaning
vehicles.
We use recycling, however, to refer to
instances where wastewater is treated
before it is re-used. On page 2 we
noted how a food processor recycles
treated effluent back to their factory.
The wastewater has passed through a
treatment process before being
pumped back to the plant. Treatment is
sometimes needed to remove
impurities that prevent the wastewatre
being re-used directly.
The type pf treatment needed depends
on the reason why you want to recycle
water.
If your water is needed for food
applications or as high-purity boiler
water then some form of membrane or
ion exchange process may be needed.
A solids-removal process may well be
required too. On the other hand, if all
you want to do is use water for
washing, a simple settlement process
may be all that's needed for removing
solid material. In a former role, BWC
helped to commission an oil-water
separator for a metal processing
company. This allowed oily water to be
treated, recycled and oil recovered.
Trade effluent costs also decreased
signifcantly with this one!
Q&A – what sort membrane treatment processes are there?
Q: Who supplies membrane equipment?
A: There are a number of suppliers of membrane
modules, although often other contractors may build the
rest of the plant. Dow, Koch, Toray and Hydranautics are
the main supplies of membrane modules.
Try:
http://www.dow.com/liquidseps/prod/prd_film.htm
http://www.kochmembrane.com/
http://www.toray-membrane.com/application/page.aspx
http://www.membranes.com/ (Hydranautics home page)
Q: Any design information out there?
A: Tons of it. The membrane suppliers we mentioned in
the first answer all supply software, free of charge, that
can be used to develop outline designs for membrane
plants.
Dow produce an excellent and easy to understand guide
about things to look for when considering installing
membrane plant. Go to:
http://www.dow.com/liquidseps/service/lm_techinfo.htm
2 3
Show me the money!
OK, we hear a lot about how
reducing water use can save
businesses money. Just exactly
how much money are we talking
about and can I have some
please?
Let's use the statistic on the main
page, i.e. Industry uses around 10
billion cubic metres of water each
year. The average cost of one
cubic metre of water is around
£1.05. On average then, the total
cost of the water used by industry
is £10.5 billion. Saving 1% of that
each year comes to £105 million.
In truth, it's possible for many
businesses to reduce their water
consumption by much more than
1%. And remember, reducing the
amount of water that goes in to
your premises should reduce the
amount of effluent you discharge.
As we've seen in previous issues,
this can also give lower trade
effluent costs through careful
management.
Re-using and recycling water can
lead to much greater savings,
although the investment needed to
do this is clearly higher. For
example, the magazine Process
Engineering recently reported on a
food processing company that now
recycles 55% of its effluent back to
the main factory, saving almost
£700 each day in water costs
alone. Over one year this saves
almost £250,000 in water costs.