Chemelot
info@chemelot.nl
info@chemelot.nl
USG Industrial Utilities, technology partner Sitech Services, Waterschapsbedrijf Limburg and advise- and engineering bureau Witteveen+Bos are doing an innovative study for sustainable water management. They research the possibilities to make effluent* appropriate for the cooling- and process water for Chemelot. This study will look at the dependency of Maaswater from the nearby Juliana Canal an how to reduce this, also how to stimulate the reuse of water. The uniqueness of this is the merging of communal and industrial water chains and the application of sustainable techniques. The outcomes of this study are known by the end of the year as expected.
Water availability models of the government have shown that climate change in the future (2050) could lead to water stress in Limburg. Water stress means that there is more demand for fresh water than available. Besides that, a low water drainage of the Maas is accompanied by reducing water quality in the Juliana Canal, causing the cooling towers and the demi-water plant (demineralization of canal water) to work with lower efficiency.
To be prepared for this, Chemelot is searching for alternatives to reduce the water dependency. This is, in combination with ambitious sustainability goals, the base of the study that the four parties perform all together.
Sustainable water management
‘Chemelot wants to give substance to sustainable water management, at which on one side water should be handled efficient and on the other side the dependency of the water from the Juliana Canal decreases.
Effluent from the IAZI (wastewater treatment facility at Chemelot), supplemented with effluent from the RWZI’s (sewage treatment plants), could function as a sustainable watersource that’s always available and doesn’t bother climate related water stress’, says Sonny Schepers, senior Sustainability Engineer of USG Industrial Utilities. ‘Besides this, the reuse of effluent is an example of a circular solution at which a residual current of one party is deployed as a raw material for another party. By doing this, the pressure on natural resources reduces. This fits in the sustainability visions of Chemelot and Waterschapsbedrijf Limburg’, thus Rein Dupont, director Waterschapsbedrijf Limburg. ‘A circular option could also deliver a contribution to reducing the residual discharge from the IAZI treatment plant to the Maas. At low water drainage from the Maas, this has a positive effect at the water quality in the Maas’, concludes René Borman, responsible for wastewater treatment at Sitech Services.
“To keep the water production up to date, this asks for changes and innovations. To achieve this, collaboration, partnerships and another way of thinking and acting are necessary. Because only when you think different, stimulate each other, make surprising applications and innovative techniques possible, we can offer solutions for the becoming increasingly urgent water stress. Circular thinking and designing is essential”, thus Arjen van Nieuwenhuijzen, design leader sustainable water technology of Witteveen + Bos.