NAVIGATING INDUSTRIAL WATER RISK: MEET THE IDA INDUSTRY ADVISORY COMMITTEE Without water, many companies and the products they provide would fail to exist. Water use is fundamental for industry and whether it's ultrapure water for the electronics and pharmaceutical sectors, or softened water for boiler feed applications, water is necessary and comes embedded in the footprint of virtually every product or commodity created on the planet.
These input / output water risks have led to two of the fastest growing segments in the global water industry today, industrial water reuse and desalination. With improving technology industry has increasingly utilized its waste water through recycling to solve its water scarcity challenges. Recycling waste water is not always enough and industrials must also look to the sea to solve their water source issues. Surrounding these two fundamental areas are Corporate water users are being forced to take many interesting niches and subplots, such as: notice of water. Concerns about operational risks, branding and commitment to corporate ʞʞ Zero liquid discharge – when water is social responsibility, and direct impacts on P&L recycled, a very concentrated stream has made water a boardroom issue for the is generated that normally is too majority of large companies. contaminated for conventional discharge. To put it into perspective, industry accounts for around 20% of total water withdrawals. With increasing urbanization & industrial growth, water consumption grows at a faster rate than the world’s population. Moreover, demand is shifting to regions with already scarce resources, and water scarcity and quality of water available are the most significant drivers of water risk in industry today ...Risk relating to the sufficient availability and quality of source water as well as risk associated with the discharge of waste water. Water scarcity also drives the phenomenon of less water being available for dilution / safe discharge into the environment. This has led to regulations demanding lower volumes of discharge as well as higher quality of wastewater that can be discharged. There are very few places in the world today where polluters can pollute with impunity.
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This stream is evaporated to a solid waste and hence, no water is discharged
ʞʞ Resource recovery -When the solid waste salt is generated, why throw it away? The technology exists to purify this salt and recover useful minerals
ʞʞ Produced
water management – Did you
know the oil and gas industry actually generates more water than it does oil?? Produced water is water that is produced as a byproduct (from the ground) during the extraction oil and gas
On top of the water availability and wastewater disposal challenges, the Industry is also moving towards more sustainable solutions and the concept of doing “more with less” while meeting ambitious sustainability goals is becoming the new reality.
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