Turning off the tap
With an annual consumption of about 2.5 million cubic meters per year, this represents a savings of about 30 percent.
The plant used to just let the water run through its machines and out into the sewage system. Now it reuses it, which in itself is a big step towards lessening the plant’s environmental impact. These impressive savings were made possible by the installation of the first closed loop circuit for 90 cubic meters per hour of cooling.
“In order to reduce water consumption, we decided to build a closed loop circuit for the a new calendering line and a neighboring profiling line consisting of two chillers, two tanks (for hot and cold water) five pumps and a control system to continuously monitor the cooling water’s physical properties such as temperature, pressure, etc.,” says Roberto Fabri, from the Environmental Health and Safety Department, Trelleborg Wheel Systems Italy.
In 2008, the plant will build a closed loop circuit for its three banbury lines, achieving a savings of an additional 500,000 cubic meters of water per year.
“The last step of the project will be to do the same for the tread and sidewall extrusion line and the inner liner calendaring line, which will save us another 600,000 cubic meters of water,” says Fabri.