Water Saving | Case Studies

Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical Co. Ltd. 　manufactures chemical products mainly using propane dehydrogenation (PDH) technologies. The Chinese government requires companies to conserve the environment by "energy savings, reducing CO2 emissions, and developing a low carbon and green economy." Thus, this customer has been making efforts to comply with these requirements. The Kurita Group proposed to the customer a cooling tower blow-down recovery system and contributed to achieving their water saving target, which was one of their environmental targets.

The cooling water used in the factories, when concentrated with silica in the water due to evaporation and scattering, forms scale on the surface of heat exchanger and impedes the heat exchange. Therefore, to maintain a certain water quality, some of the cooling water must be discharged and then added to the industrial water to maintain the concentration. Since the industrial water quality at the customer’s factory changed by season, a large amount of blowdown water was needed when the water quality deteriorated, and the increase in industrial water usage and blowdown discharge was becoming an issue.

The introduction of the "cooling tower Blow Water reclamation system " proposed by the Kurita Group has made it possible to recover blow water, remove scales -causing substances through RO membranes treatment, and reuse the recycled water as make-up water for cooling tower. In the six years since the introduction of this system, the total amount of Industrial water used and wastewater discharged has been reduced by approximately 1.2 million tons. In addition, for customers, the system is installed on their premises as an asset of the Kurita Group, and is provided as a " reclaimed water supply services " that covers all operations from operation management to Maintenance, as well as the management of water volume and quality for a stable supply of recycled water . This initiative has been selected as one of the "Top 10 Water-Saving Activities in Zhejiang Province," setting a benchmark for water-saving initiatives in the province.