Planning for Sustainable Industrial Growth

Alternative Water Resources for Industrial Processes

Challenges

There is no substitute for water in industrial processes where it is used for multiple purposes: for cleaning, heating or cooling, transport, as a raw material or dissolver. In times of water scarcity, thus, alternatives to fresh water resources need to be explored and assessed.

Project Activities

Measures developed in the project will be quality tested in two steel companies (Mobarakeh Steel Company and Esfahan Steel Company) and one gas-fired power plant in Isfahan as these industries have the highest industrial water demand in the catchment. The transferability shall be guaranteed by the fact that these measures can be implemented without or with little additional costs.

Key elements are:

• the development of a technological-economic concept for the reuse of municipal wastewater as process water with various qualities,
• to reduce water consumption and apply recycling technologies for dropping the specific water demand, and
• the development of criteria and a process for treating concentrates from membrane systems.

For the reuse of municipal wastewater, in-house water recycling and the reduction of water consumption, an integrated water-energy-material flow-model is developed. It will be able to calculate and compare different alternatives. Depending on limiting conditions, ideal measures will be defined and implemented.

Expected Outcomes

The work package prepares transferable strategies and measures for sustainable industrial growth by reducing industrial water consumption, reusing water internally and developing alternative water resources.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Sven Geißen, Technical University Berlin, sven.geissen@tu-berlin.de