Tips to optimize industrial plant water and energy consumption
1. Take a site-wide approach.
Reducing energy needs and protecting water resources are major challenges facing all industries today, but a series of solutions are available to achieve maximum efficiency. By taking a site-wide approach we can understand how much water is being used, where it is being used, and how. We can thus identify savings or unknown losses and leaks that need to be investigated.
We may also be able to identify a water stream that can be re-used elsewhere on the plant. In summary, a site wide, holistic approach allows us to work in harmony with the rest of the plant.
2. Consider leasing a mobile industrial water treatment unit.
Leasing a mobile industrial water treatment unit can be an extremely efficient means of maintaining vital water treatment during planned plant shutdowns, while guaranteeing water quality. It can also be more cost effective to hire a mobile unit than build a costly upfront process treatment plant. Ondeo IS OMOBILE® units can be hired for short, or long, periods with flow rates ranging from a few m3/hr to several hundred m3/hr and can be on site within days.
3. Tailor your supply to meet the needs of your plant.
Managing energy consumption is typically one of the biggest challenges facing any industrial facility, and the energy associated with water treatment plant is no exception. Adapting water quality and quantity to suit your specific site needs can generate considerable savings within your water cycle, with one measurable benefit being an optimisation of energy consumption.
4. Cut energy consumption with specialised solutions.
The most energy-intensive component of an aerobic effluent treatment plant is aeration, accounting for 40 to 70% of the energy used. However, new solutions are helping to minimise this cost. For example, an innovative solution from Ondeo IS called Greenbass™ continuously adjusts the airflow delivered to the biological sludge treatment stage, making major savings in plant energy consumption.
5. Make use of anaerobic digestion.
Anaerobic digestion is a process by which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. Anaerobic digestion allows you to produce energy from effluent: typically, removing 1 ton of COD has the potential to produce around 3,500 KWh.
6. Reduce, recycle and reuse.
Reducing water consumption not only helps improve efficiency, it also helps reduce environmental impact. Modern innovations in water recycling technologies, from the market-leading water management experts, allow process water to be reclaimed and wastewater to be reused safely and sustainably.
7. Consider an integrated solution.
This looks at each element of the industrial water cycle and its relationship with production to optimise savings, reliability and sustainability. By having an experienced water management company develop a credible water, and energy, balance to identify opportunities for saving money and optimise performance, a process improvement plan can then be developed. Examples of cost-saving solutions can range from identifying system leakages, that can account for 50% of potential savings, to the installation of an anaerobic digestion system to recover biogas that can be redirected to the site’s boilers for generating steam, or to generate electricity that can be sold back to the national grid, enabling the customer to cut their energy bill and generate an income, while reducing their environmental footprint.
8. Prepare for efficiency.
An integrated solution will free up your own staff to do what they do best. With an expert provider to manage complex industrial and waste water systems to maximum efficiency, customers find that they can make cost savings while benefitting from more time to concentrate on their core business.
9. Keep seeking out the savings.
A water management expert will help you to increase your efficiency and productivity and reduce your environmental impact but this has to be done on an ongoing basis. Through monitoring and reporting, your provider will then keep working with you to bring continuous improvement.
10. Choose a supplier with expertise across industry.
A supplier with a breadth of expertise, across different industries, will offer you exceptional technical and practical knowledge and because it has a wide range of experience it can rapidly identify, and then deliver, the right solution from the outset that meets the needs of your plant.
This information was provided by: Ondeo Industrial Solutions Ltd.
Source: http://www.processindustryinformer.com
