Water audit leads to increased efficiency for Air Products
Economical and operational performance improvement thanks to clustered water management.
The challenge
Coping with increased production and environmental requirements. Air Products is an international supplier of industrial gases with a production facility in Ghent. The company was facing the dual challenge of corporate expansion and increasingly stringent environmental requirements.
The first challenge required them to secure a supply of additional water for their future needs.
The second challenge meant finding a solution that guarantees a continuous quality. For these reasons, Air Products asked Water-link to perform a water audit on their current and future water usage.
This audit included a thorough analysis of the company’s water requirements, flows and qualities, and an assessment of possible future water demands.
As a result of the audit, Water-link was able to propose a range of fine-tuned options:
- Keep canal water as the supply and adapt existing water treatment programs;
- Switch to tap water quality through existing water networks;
- Build adn operate a local water treatment factory dedicated to Air Products;
- Connect to Induss II, the Water-link-owned water factory servicing a cluster of local firms.
The solution
Connecting to the cluster serviced by water treatment plant Induss II .
Although the first three solutions are perfectly feasible, the obvious and most sensible solution for Air Products was to connect with the existing installations of Induss II. This would ensure enormous benefits of scale.
Using the abundantly available, low-cost water from the Rodenhuize dock in Ghent, Induss II already produces four different bespoke water qualities tailored to its various customers’ requirements. Customers have their water delivered through adistribution grid, guaranteeing total product integrity and ensuring continuity for the customers’ production plants. This whole integration process is designed to have a low environmental impact – exactly what Air Products were looking for.
Water-link therefore constructed a 3-kilometer pipeline to connect Air Products with Induss II. We also drew up Service Level Agreements between Air Products and Water-link, which were defined within the scope of a long-term contract. These guarantee the provision of a constant flow of cooling water, improved operational efficiency, and maintenance of the cooling water delivery infrastructure.
