Look through any issue of Water Technology, and it won’t take long to find content about water conservation and sustainability. There’s good reason for that topic being such a focus of our work: According to a United Nations report, five out of 11 regions in the world have water stress values above 25%, including two regions with high water stress and one with extreme water stress. The UN characterizes a territory as “water stressed” when it withdraws 25% or more of its renewable freshwater resources. And 12% of water withdrawals throughout the world are for industries.
That’s a concerning statistic, but I am comforted by knowing that many brilliant people are working to ensure that industries throughout the world are making the most of this precious resource. I’m also happy that some of those very people wrote articles in this issue of Water Technology.
Our cover story comes from Bryan Christiansen, founder and CEO of Limble CMMS. He gives six tips for improving water conservation in the mining industry. One example he provides: conducting a regular water management audit. “This procedure allows operators to continuously evaluate opportunities for improvement,” he writes. “An audit involves accounting for every cubic foot of water that goes in and out of the site and analyzing improvement opportunities in each of the processes.”
On page 18, Ali AlGhamdi with Saudi Aramco discusses the fundamentals of the water demineralization process as well as how to troubleshoot some of the most common problems associated with those systems.
“To produce the appropriate demineralized water, plant managers must understand the fundamental steps covered in this article,” AlGhamdi writes. “Otherwise, they run the risk of complications such as thermal degradation or chemical and mechanical failures.”
On page 22, KETOS founder and CEO Meena Sankaran discusses the top water quality monitoring challenges in the industrial sector.
“When developing and implementing a water quality monitoring and testing strategy, industrial water operators often face challenges including large, distributed water networks not suited for conventional water monitoring processes that rely on manual sampling and testing,” she writes. “This includes long turnaround times for test results and rush fees for expedited results.”
On page 30, Mike Kupin, a product manager with Garlock Sealing Technologies, brings us a case study about a Georgia paper mill that realized $17,000 in savings with a new sealing system. Kupin writes, “In total, the HYDRA-JUST option offered lower water consumption rates, less media dilution, less thermal dilution, lower energy costs, lower water treatment costs and fewer ‘housekeeping’ issues related to excessive water leakage in the plant.”
As usual, we have an assortment of product sections for your consideration, including the New Products section on page 27. We also have spotlights on filtration equipment as well as pumps, drives and motors, both on page 26.
Thanks to all the writers who contributed to this month’s issue, and a big thank you to all our readers.
