Business Finds New Ways to Save Water for the Future
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Business
There is a Bigger Environmental Problem Facing the Planet Than Climate Change According to Nestle Chairman Peter Brabeck
The statistics are certainly shocking.
According to the UN, one in three of the world's population currently lives in water stressed areas and that is set to increase to one in two by 2030.
It could lead to food shortages, disease, even war.
Less talked about, though, is the potential impact on business and the global economy. Water is after all an essential input just like energy.
"From a corporate risk perspective businesses have started asking the question: 'What would happen if we didn't have access to water?'" says Paul O'Callaghan, chief executive of Bluetech Research, a consultancy advising on water technology.
"It could shut down production and that could impact a firm's share price, so it's being taken seriously by investors."
Take me to the river
To bulwark themselves and cut costs, sectors from pulp and paper to oil and gas are turning to technology.
Take Nestle USA's pizza division factory in Little Chute, Wisconsin, which has teamed up with GE Water to reduce its water usage in its cooling towers.
"Industrial cooling water must meet tight specifications, but Little Chute's city water is challenging because of its hardness and alkalinity," says the firm.
"Standard chemical treatments were unable to treat it adequately because high concentrations produced scaling in the cooling towers, which decreased cooling efficiency and required additional maintenance."
But by applying GE's advanced water-treatment chemical technology to the plant's cooling towers, the factory has been able to use re-use its water to a much greater degree - saving some 7.4 million gallons of water and reducing sewer discharges by the same amount.
Treating food and beverage wastewater can still leave an unpleasant by-product called 'sludge'. It costs money to dispose of, not to mention creates greenhouse gases.
But US firm Nutrinsic has come up with a novel solution - turning the nutrients in factory wastewater into quality animal feed.
"The host plant simply has to give us their waste nutrients at no cost, allow us to alter the wastewater treatment conditions according to our protocols and provide a small space for us to construct our 'harvest' system," says chief executive Leo Gingras.
The plant reduces expenses while Nutrinsic benefits financially from sales of the feed.
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