95% Reduction in Solid Waste Disposal and 85% Reuse Rate

The Customer
A construction equipment manufacturing plant whose manufacturing processes utilize approximately 50,000 gallons of fresh water per day and introduces heavy metals, chlorides, sulfates, and oil into their wastewater.

The Problem
50K gallons of wastewater per day was being treated with an existing wastewater treatment system and a standard reverse osmosis (RO) system (for reuse), but the facility was experiencing discharge permit compliance issues. Additionally, the existing system was aging, and they experienced high maintenance and operational costs, including off-site solids disposal. The facility was under a corporate sustainability initiative to reuse their wastewater and looking for improvements to their reuse rate.

The ProChem Solution
After completing the water analysis, assessing the facility's reuse potential and production goals, ProChem offered a new wastewater treatment solution with a water reuse system that was designed to fit their existing system footprint. Additionally, during the period when the facility's old system was being removed, and the new one was being installed, ProChem provided a mobile, temporary treatment system, so that plant production was not impacted during the transition.

The solution included a 100 gpm continuous flow treatment system with physical/chemical treatment, ProChem's Metaloc™ technology to remove metals and reduce solid waste (by 95%), and ultrafiltration to remove oils. The reuse system features ProChem's industrial high-pressure reverse osmosis (I-PRO™)technology to further purify the wastewater and feed it back into the manufacturing process. Additionally, the system features ultraviolet protocols to control the microbiological growth in the storage and distribution systems.

Both systems are equipped with local monitoring and automation controls and ProChem's web-based remote monitoring service, requiring minimal operator interaction.

With ProChem's continuous flow wastewater treatment system, treatment chemicals and resins, and I-PRO™ water reuse system in place, the customer is experiencing 100% permit compliance in addition to 85% reuse rate and higher quality feed water to their manufacturing process (compared to their previous standard RO and wastewater treatment systems).

The Win

• 100% discharge permit compliance
• Addressed corporate initiative for water recycling
• Cost savings on water purchasing, physical/chemical treatment, and discharge permit
• 85% reuse rate of their wastewater
• Higher quality process water
• 95% reduction in solid waste disposal