Industrial wastewater is a by-product of manufacturing processes at industrial or commercial premises. Its volume and properties are dependable on its source and other factors. With suitable treatment, industrial water can be recycled and reused as boiler or cooling tower feed water supplement, material washing, irrigation, toilet flushing, etc.
1. By treating and reusing water on site, businesses can reduce water consumption and discharge of trade effluent to public sewer.
2. By exploring innovative water and wastewater technology, companies can cut operation costs, improve operation efficiency and maximise overall business profitability.
An illustrative example is for a petroleum refining industry to adopt Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) plus Reverse Osmosis (RO) to treat their effluent producing a source of reusable process water.
LTTD is a desalination process utilising low-grade industrial waste heat to produce high-quality freshwater. In contrast to the conventional desalination processes such as multi-stage flashing (MSF), multi-effect desalination (MED) and reverse osmosis (RO), where the main cost is related to energy usage, the LTTD process uses low grade waste heat with minimum electricity demand. The waste heat can be from various sources including power plants, refinery plants, renewable energy, district cooling, waste incineration plants etc. LTTD also requires less maintenance due to the absence of the parts of interior tube bundles and membranes, hence no replacement is required.
With the integration of LTTD technology, ample waste heat is available to generate high-grade process water for main process use as well as provide an alternative source for process cooling.
As seawater is readily available, companies on Jurong Island and situated along seafront can use seawater as cooling medium in the once-through seawater cooling or seawater cooling tower (SWCT). It has been verified that SWCT is both technically feasible and economically viable, especially for greenfield applications. By adopting this developed technology, companies are able to reduce their reliance on freshwater.
