Recycle & Reuse Waste Water to Reduce Intake of Water

July 13, 2010 8:11 am

Today, water and wastewater treatment are of greater concern for every industry. Each industry has its own set of requirements which determine treatment needs, from process water to wastewater. Siemens Water Technologies (SWT) specializes in providing world leading products, system and services in this sector. TM Nagarajan, Head – Water Technology business, Siemens India discusses the key issues related to the water and waste water industry in India.
 
Siemens helps industry and manufacturers meet specific water quality requirements to ensure consistent processes and production. Please brief us on the recent trends in industrial water and wastewater services in India. 
Water Crisis, apart from scarcity, is caused by poor water management practices. The trend is to consider water management in totality rather than looking at in isolation. It is a combination of treatment technology, deploying energy and chemical efficient equipment combined with careful operation and maintenance. Today, the industries are looking at options to recycle and reuse waste water there by reducing the intake of water. Also urbanization has led to deployment of technologies and products that would need less foot print. Industries are looking at water audit in their facilities to identify wastage and minimize consumption. Combining the strengths of treatment technologies, effective project implementation, and proper operation and maintenance (O&M) is the focus for industry.
 
Can you highlight the key issues and challenges the industry is facing today?
Non-availability of water and poor water management are the key issues. Alternate sources of water, like sea water, secondary treated sewage are being explored by the industry to overcome the problem. The challenge is to bring in new technologies and instill better operation and maintenance practices.
 
While implementing water technologies, special emphasis should be given to Life Cycle Cost Evaluation. The application and product development functions must be focused to ensure that the technologies are not applied on ad hoc basis but are designed to suit specific applications and user profile. The old plants that are operating at sub-optimal efficiencies need to be revamped.
 
The technology of treating water must be integrated with the manufacturing and process technologies adopted by the respective industries.
 
Typically, the machines/equipment are selected, should be evaluated for water consumption and waste water generation, the current trend only focuses on energy/fuel consumption. The water footprint should be considered seriously while selecting any equipment.
 
There are technologies available that can help improving water situation. Example- Desalination using reverse osmosis and waste water recycling using sequencing bio reactor (SBR) and Membrane Bio-reactor (MBR). An ideal example of the usage of these technologies can be seen in the city of Singapore.
 

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