Recycling wastewater
by Ronald G Fink, President of RGF Group Inc. and Tony Julian, Director of Ecologic International .
Today a wide range of businesses from heavy equipment dealers and mines to golf courses and auto dealerships are faced with the problem of reducing their water consumption and eliminating wastewater discharge.
Over the past decade the majority of heavy industrial wastewater dischargers, referred to as point sources, have cleaned up their operations to meet improved environmental regulations. Now, the focus has shifted to smaller ‘trade waste’ generators, known as non-point sources. Trade waste is liquid waste generated from any business (commercial or industrial) other than domestic sewerage. Common trade wastes include washing and cleaning waters and run-off from rinsing or process procedures.
In many cases businesses may have been discharging trade waste streams to ground or sewer for a long period of time without consequence.
Why change procedures now? Discharging your Trade Waste to sewer, ground or storm systems without approval is now illegal and can bring large penalties. It is your responsibility to obtain a Trade Waste Certificate and in some cases take steps to treat or reduce the waste stream generated.
Besides the illegality of discharging Trade Waste without approval our country now faces a dire water shortage brought about by the past misuse of this natural resource.
Reduce and Eliminate
Eliminating discharges requires careful evaluation of your current practices. Determine which practices produce unnecessary wastewater and, if possible, discontinue them. If practices must continue, then take steps to prevent or reduce discharges. For example, elimination of needless contaminated run off water may be as easy as covering piles of material stored outdoors with a tarp or roof to prevent contact with rain water. This practice can usually reduce large volumes of contaminated storm water and is relatively inexpensive to implement.
Water recycling
How is water reclaimed for use?
Water purification systems are used for this purpose. Typical systems rely upon a variety of methods to remove contaminants from the wash water and make it suitable for reuse in the washing process. There is no need to purify water to drinking or even discharge standards when reclaiming for further washing operations.
Which is the right water recycling application for your operations?
Many variables must be considered including types and quantities of contaminants, available space, volume of water needed, environmental conditions and climate are some of the factors to consider.
Recycling Operations
Wastewater recycling systems have limitations that must be understood. Some are separators and concentrators, while others are aim at elimination of contaminants. In the case of separators and concentrators, at some point in time the contaminants must be removed from the system and disposed of properly.
Normally, contaminants collected in a recycle system will be concentrated and have a small volume, thus their disposal costs will be minimized. Water in a separator or concentrator can be used several hundred times before it accumulates an excess of dissolved solids.
Two types of solid contaminants are present in wash water, suspended and dissolved. Lower cost recycle systems can remove suspended solids, while more expensive equipment is required to remove dissolved solids.
Systems which are able to eliminate contaminants in wastewater employ much more sophisticated technology such as reverse osmosis and thermo oxidation.
Save Water, Save Money
Consumption based (user pays) water and wastewater pricing has now been established throughout Australia. Non-residential pricing involves paying to be connected to town supply and paying for the water used, paying for connection to city sewer and paying for wastewater volume discharged.
There are many ways you can save water in your business – if you use less water, you pay less. By recycling your wastewater you can also avoid illegal discharge penalties and downstream litigation for accidental or prior unauthorized activities.
Systems that recycle wastewater for reuse provide financially feasible solutions to waste management problems. As Australia develops tougher regulations in regards to trade waste discharge, cost effective water management systems have become a necessity.
31-Oct-2006