Reusing waste water

Reusing waste water

Bij diverse bedrijven zet De Watergroep allerlei waterbronnen om tot de gewenste eindkwaliteit. Met industriewaterprojecten bij o.a. Alpro en DuPont beschikt de business unit Industrie en Services over een uitgebreid portfolio aan bedrijven waar we water-op-maat leveren.

introductie foto Reusing waste water

Milcobel reuses water from milk powder

Large volumes of water are released during the production of cheese and milk powder. Dairy producer Milcobel has called in De Watergroep to help reuse that water as drinking water. 

The reuse project at Milcobel differs slightly from De Watergroep's ‘normal’ industrial water projects: The water to be treated is not effluent from a waste water treatment plant; it is released during the production process instead.

EVAPORATION

“Milcobel mainly produces milk powder at its sites in Kallo and Langemark”, Industry and Services account manager Pieter Vlasschaert explains. “Milk powder is created by evaporating the water in normal milk. We have recently started turning that evaporated water into drinking water. At the Langemark site, cheese is produced alongside milk powder. Whey — the liquid released when cheese starts to solidify — is created during this process. Once again, we can convert this liquid to water of drinkable quality. By reusing water internally in this way, Milcobel needs less mains water.” The new treatment plant was built in 2019 and commissioned at the start of 2020. 

Industrial water replaces groundwater and mains water at DuPont

The Bruges-based company DuPont specialises in the development and production of yeast and enzymes. The company uses soft and low-mineral water in its production processes and is relying on De Watergroep to supply this.

Over the past few years, DuPont has invariably opted to use mains water and highly saline groundwater as process water. Both of these types of water needed to be treated before use. As part of a new approach, De Watergroep is seeking to reduce the volume of mains water DuPont needs to purchase in future and reduce the company’s groundwater extraction operations — an important aspect given the current pressure groundwater is under.

REUSE

“DuPont uses surface water from the Ghent-Ostend canal as cooling water. Instead of jettisoning that water back into the canal after use, we will be picking it up as a raw water source”, Head of Industry and Services Frank De Poortere explains. “We will treat this water thoroughly using rough filtration, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis. By keeping the water on site and reusing it, the production process ties in much better with the circular economy. Construction of the installation was completed in 2019, and it is all set to enter service in 2020. Once everything is ready, we will be supplying around 45 cubic metres of process water per hour at DuPont, or 375,000 cubic metres per year.”

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