The role of water auditing in achieving water conservation in the process industry

CATEGORY: WATER CONSERVATION
Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 52, 1 August 2013, Pages 356–361
The role of water auditing in achieving water conservation in the process industry
Dani Jennifer Barrington, Alison Prior , Goen Ho
School of Engineering and Information Technology, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia
Abstract
Thanks to its low cost, water has been over utilized within the process industry. Increasing environmental regulations, concerns around human and ecological health, and consumer expectations of high environmental performance, however, have put water conservation high up on the to-do list of the process industry.
Many conceptual and mathematical techniques are available for determining appropriate water management practices to achieve this. Unfortunately, they are not easily applied in complex, multi-contaminant systems such as petroleum refineries.
Authors explore the use of water auditing techniques to examine water flows within a petroleum refinery, concurrently identifying practical ways for achieving water conservation. Their work shows that, even in a refinery with processes considered highly efficient within the industry, many opportunities exist to improve water conservation through technical, cultural and behavioral adaptations. These includ the use of alternate water sources such as rainwater runoff, reuse of water within process units, and the introduction of an overarching company policy to minimize water use and effluent discharge.
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