Case Studies

Through City West Water's Business Resource Efficiency Program, we work closely with our commercial, industrial and institutional customers to improve water and resource efficiency and implement cleaner production processes.

Save Water in Cooling Towers

Cooling towers consume up to half the water used in large office buildings, shopping centres and other major commercial facilities.

Recent City West Water trials assessed the efficiency of cooling towers and examined ways to reduce water use while maintaining or improving cooling performance.

At one site, potential savings of up to 9.5 million litres of water were identified, which would translate into a saving of $17,000 per year.

The trials also found that savings could be made by minimising use of expensive water treatment chemicals.

Cuts in water and chemical use can also be gained by repairing leaks and maximising water recycling.

Most of these benefits can be delivered through simple maintenance and operational changes that provide quick returns for customers, while ensuring no increased risk of Legionella infection.

CSR Ethanol - Cooling Tower Replacement Project

City West Water partially funded the project, as the upgrade of the cooling towers was deemed to achieve large water savings. The new cooling towers were commissioned in June 2008. A saving of 18 million litres of water per year was achieved at the CSR Yarraville Distillery since the upgrade of the cooling towers. Download the PDF for the full case study.

A Cool Way to Save Water and Energy

Significant opportunities were identified when the operation and maintenance of the cooling system was analysed from a water and energy efficiency perspective. Olex decided to address this inefficiency by using variable speed drives on the cooling towers. Installation of variable speed drives allowed the cooling tower fans to operate at their optimal speed, depending on the weather conditions and the degree of cooling required at any given time. Download the PDF for the full case study.