Healthcare Manufacturer Saves Over 16 Million Gallons of Water

Challenge

A healthcare products manufacturer in the United States needed to expand operations and production without increasing their water needs and water discharge requirements. The company needed a 150 gallon per minute (GPM) treatment plant, capable of producing high quality Pharmacopeia purified water.

The specifics for this example water system include:

• 150 GPM make-up water requirement
• Operation: 7 hrs/day, 5 days/wk, 50 wks/yr
• Feed water cost: $1.33/1,000 gallons
• Wastewater discharge cost: $2.77/1,000 gallons
• Electrical cost: $0.05 kWh​

Solution

The healthcare products manufacturer explored various solutions and ultimately selected Evoqua ​​Water Technologies as its partner to develop a system that would maximize conservation savings and optimize its production of products.

The manufacturer chose the S3 process from Evoqua, utilizing Ionpure® CEDI modules. The revolutionary Sanitize, Start, Stop process provides microbial control by using a quick thirty-minute heat sanitization cycle. Operation stops during dormant periods rather than continuously recirculating, providing significant energy and cost savings. A rapid pulse sanitization just before use ensures that the system produces consistent optimal water quality. ​

The S3 process:

• Consumes considerably less water and energy
• Creates significantly less wastewater
• Reduces the need for system consumables such as salt, pH and UV bulbs
• Lengthens the life of components such as pumps, membranes and CEDI modules
• Requires less space and unit processes
• Can easily be retrofitted to existing systems
• Can be combined with chemical cleaning, chemical sanitization and conventional heat sanitization to best address microbial contamination and biofilm formation

Results

The economic benefits from use of the S3 process were dramatic, saving 16.4 million gallons of water per year. While the savings are greater on larger, redundant systems, even relatively small, single-train water systems with moderate water costs still result in rapid payback and significant savings.

The projected savings over a 10-year period are significantly more than the the initial cost of the new water system. The S3 process​​ quickly pays for itself, often with a payback period of 6 to 24 months, after which the savings immediately start to improve the bottom line.