Plastics manufacturer Qenos saves $1.3 million
This year Altona plastics company Qenos expects to add $1.3 million to its bottom line by embracing cleaner production and water conservation.
By the end of 2006, when the initiatives are fully implemented, Qenos will save almost one billion litres of drinking water and about 900 million litres of trade waste discharges a year.
Understanding water use
Qenos Environmental Engineer Chris Hutchins said the company’s starting point was to understand how much water was used and why.
An overhaul of an inefficient steam condensate recovery system was partly financed by a grant from the Victorian Government’s Water Smart industry demonstration projects fund.
Combined with subsequent changes to feedstock operations, these initiatives save 870 million litres of water, and reduce trade waste volumes by 290 million litres a year.
Funding support
A Water Smart grant improved filtration at a water treatment facility at the Qenos plastics plant, allowing water normally discharged to sewer to be recycled in the plastics cooling tower, saving an extra 90 million litres of drinking water a year.
In the 2004 SaveWater Awards, Qenos won the metropolitan manufacturing category as well as an overall excellence award, and also took out the City of Melbourne’s Celebrating Melbourne award in the manufacturing category that year.
Qenos now plans to harvest stormwater and use it to replace drinking water in the cooling tower at its resins plant, and is participating in a major Altona Chemical Complex water and salt reduction study.
Click here to view the Qenos case study.
Recycled water secures laundry’s future
One of Melbourne’s largest commercial laundries, Melbourne Linen Service, has drought-proofed itself with a $400,000 recycled water system at its Altona North headquarters.
The US-made AquaRecycle system is the first of its type installed in Australia, and recycles about 70 per cent of the water used to wash linen such as sheets, towels and tablecloths.
A Resource Management Plan developed with City West Water helped Melbourne Linen Service identify the AquaRecycle system as an effective way to improve performance and reduce costs associated with water use and trade waste.
City West Water provided Melbourne Linen Service with a $100, 000 grant to help with the implementation expenses.
The new recycling system will reduce Melbourne Linen Service’s drinking water consumption by about 70 million litres a year, and reduce trade waste discharge by about 30 million litres a year.
Significant energy savings are made because at the end of the treatment process, the water is returned warm, reducing the costs associated with heating washing water.
Click here to view the Melbourne Linen Service case study.
Metal finishing businesses look to clean up
Electroplating firms and other metal finishing businesses are working to minimise the loss of valuable metals and reduce contaminants in trade waste as part of a wide-ranging partnership study exploring cleaner production processes.
The study also aims to reduce consumption of drinking water in metal finishing, and minimise trade waste and other waste discharges.
The partnership involves metal finishing companies, City West Water, South East Water, Yarra Valley Water, Melbourne Water, EPA Victoria, and Hyder Consulting.
Some 25 small to medium-size electroplaters from across Melbourne are involved in site visits, workshops and consultations.
A key objective is to reduce the amount of valuable metals lost through the trade waste and solid waste streams.
Minimising the loss of metals in trade waste discharges also reduces the amount of heavy metals in biosolids at sewage treatment plants, increasing the options for biosolid reuse and water recycling.
The benefits of cleaner salt
An investigation at the Orica chloralkali plant at Laverton has the potential to reduce salt discharge to sewer by two tonnes a day.
The plant electrolyses common salt to produce sodium hydroxide and chlorine gas for industry.
Significant amounts of salt are discharged because of sulphate impurities, which have to be ‘bled out’ of the process.
Consultants working with Orica and City West Water are investigating a way to remove the sulphate impurities to allow reuse of the salt in the process and recover the Sodium sulphate as a saleable product.
Pilot-scale trials will help to identify the optimal processes required to recover raw materials from the waste stream.
Industry-specific benchmarks
Where available, industry benchmarks will be used to help identify realistic water-reduction targets for your City West Water Resource Management Plan.
Cooling towers: saving water and money
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.
The trials were conducted at three commercial sites across Melbourne.
At one location, 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.