Water supply and wastewater discharge limitations were forcing a beverage manufacturing plant in a water-stressed region of North America to run below optimal output and above projected cost. Woodard & Curran designed and implemented a water reuse system that saved money and increased production.
Before the reuse system was implemented, the plant was producing 175,000 gallons of wastewater every day, exceeding the cap imposed by the local wastewater utility. This meant that 25,000 gallons of wastewater had to be trucked off site every day at great expense. The system, which combined ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet disinfection, reduced total discharge to 90,000 gallons per day despite an increase in production of more than 30%. The plant now reuses between 40,000 and 95,000 gallons per day, reducing its draw on water supplies and saving significant cost in treatment fees and trucking.
WATER USE RATIO CUT NEARLY IN HALF
Absent the production increase, the facility would have reduced its overall water use by more than 50%. The water use ratio, the volume of water used divided by volume of production, was reduced from 2.1 to 1.15, a savings of 1 gallon for every gallon of product output.
