Meet the expert: Industrial water reuse

Reduce your water footprint and save

Many regions around the world are facing water scarcity, and industrial processes are contributing to the problem. The demand for water in manufacturing is expected to increase by 400% by 2050 [OECD], as many industries are water intensive. Water plays directly or indirectly an important role as a solvent, cooling liquid, wash and clean liquid and many other applications.

In response to water scarcity and rising clean-water and wastewater discharge costs, industrial facilities are moving towards water reuse all over the world. Water reuse is when the wastewater for the entire plant or specific process is treated to a quality that makes it possible to feed it back into the facility’s water cycle. 

Reasons for implementing water reuse

Water reuse reduces the need for freshwater intake, allowing industrial facilities to save water in a time of scarcity.

Water reuse also helps industrial facilitiesreduce costs. As water tariffs increase,  you can save money by reducing freshwater use. Furthermore, facilities that choose to discharge their wastewater to municipal treatment plants must absorb the increasing costs of the local municipality’s fees.

Compliance with regulations is also a challenge for industrial facilities. High civil penalties could accrue if  decentralised wastewater treatment is insufficient leading to pollution of the environment. As demands for documentation and reporting can be very complex, manually operated water treatment systems have the risk of human error built in. All of this compliance complexity comes with a risk of personal liabilities or negative publicity for your company. 

Intelligent ways to reuse water

Cooling towers are a good place to implement water reuse. Many industrial facilities have cooling towers, they are very water intensive, yet they do not require the same water quality and treatment as water for core industrial processes. This also means a lower investment and shorter pay-back time. Water reuse for cooling tower make-up water can be instrumental in saving water.

Intelligent solutions for water treatment help companies reuse wastewater in their own facilities

Grundfos iSOLUTIONS connects a series of smart components to help you optimise your water reuse process. Combining digital dosing pumps, monitoring, measurement and control devices plus intelligent variable frequency pumps, the solutions save time, labour and costs. Using an intelligent solution, industrial facilities can reduce their water footprint, reduce the cost of wastewater treatment, and reliably and effortlessly achieve legal compliance where needed.

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Take a deep dive into the key processes of industrial water reuse and see how Grundfos iSOLUTIONS can help you optimise them to save water, energy and costs.