Practical aspects of factory water usage reduction

There is good reason to examine possible ways to reduce water usage. By reducing the water needs of the plant, not only is progress made towards the mounting environmental demands of modem society, but the load upon cooling towers and spray ponds is reduced. This in tum may allow more effective operation, possibly removing the need for, or delaying capital expenditure on, increasing the capacity of equipment. Since such equipment returns no income to the factory, this can only be a positive outcome. Work in the area of reducing factory water usage began at Mulgrave Mill in 1991. In depth examination of a number of options has taken place since then. Due to wide differences in factory layout and requirements, it is not possible to give an order of priority for the introduction of water usage reducing measures that applies to all factories. However this paper will try to examine quantitatively methods of reducing water requirements to assist those working in this area to establish an order of priority for examination and implementation into their factory's of water reduction measures, as well as examining techniques that may make operation more successful.